A meeting of all political parties (legislative) of Tamil Nadu adopted a resolution urging the Cauvery Water Management Authority to direct Karnataka government to release water from the Cauvery as directed by Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC). If necessary, the State government would move the Supreme Court in this regard, said Chief Minister Stalin, who chaired the meeting in Chennai on Tuesday. Stalin said Karnataka’s denial of Cauvery water due for Tamil Nadu was unacceptable. The meeting was originally planned to be chaired by Water Resources Minister Durai Murugan.

Contempt of court

The State government had also written to the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) urging it to implement the directive of the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC) to Karnataka to release 1 tmc ft of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. Not releasing water to Tamil Nadu was ‘contempt’ of the direction of the Supreme Court, the Chief Minister said in a release on Monday. Citing various reports, Stalin said that as of July 15, the total water storage in the four major reservoirs of Karnataka stood at 75.586 tmc. However, the water storage in Mettur Dam is only 13.808 tmc. In this situation, Karnataka refusing to release water is an act against farmers of Tamil Nadu, he said.

In the all-party meeting convened by the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday, the government said it would only release 8,000 cusecs of water per day instead of the 1 tmc (11,500 cusecs) per day.

In a typical year, the mandate requires the release of 9.4 tmc ft in June and 31.24 tmc ft in July, totalling 40.43 tmc ft. Currently, over 5 tmc ft of water has already been released, said Siddaramaiah. If there is no rain we will minimise release of water and file an appeal, he said.

In a release on Monday, Chief Minister Stalin

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