For the residents of AMCO Layout at Kodigehalli, it’s a double whammy. They not only face acute water shortage, but also risk contracting water-borne diseases from contaminated borewell water.

The Tamil Nadu Government has approached the Supreme Court to prevent Karnataka from using the Cauvery water stored in its four main reservoirs for irrigation between February and May.

CHENNAI: With the Cauvery water sharing row escalating, Tamil Nadu government today made it clear that it would not allow construction of a new dam by Karnataka at Mekedhatu across the river under "any circumstances."

Replying to a special mention on the water dispute in the Assembly, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa accused Karnataka of not honouring the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award.

BJP, JD(S) members demand relief package. Parliament was adjourned on Thursday as members belonging to different parties created an uproar over the Cauvery water dispute and drought-like situation in Karnataka.

Soon after an obituary reference in the Lok Sabha, members stormed into the Well to raise their demands.

Court should decide on Cauvery issue, they say

With the Cauvery dispute once again starting to generate heat in Karnataka, which is preparing for using the river's water for summer irrigation, a measure opposed by Tamil Nadu, farmers in Tamil Nadu are a worried lot.

The State government on Monday termed Tamil Nadu questioning the State’s right to utilise Cauvery water as “illegal” and “inhuman”, and sought the Centre’s intervention to prevent the neighbouring state from raking up the water-sharing issue “unnecessarily”.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected Tamil Nadu’s interlocutory applications seeking its intervention. But Tamil Nadu has once again filed another application just to provoke us. Such attitude needs to be stopped, the Centre should intervene,” Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda told the Legislative Assembly on Monday.

The idea of interlinking rivers is appealing because it is so grand, but this is also the reason it is nothing more than a distraction

The Supreme Court recently issued a diktat to the central government about the scheme to interlink rivers. The directions are straightforward. The government shall set up a high-level committee of ministers and other representatives on interlinking of rivers; the committee shall meet “at least once in two months”;

The Tamil Nadu government has approached the Supreme Court seeking urgent directions to restrain Karnataka from taking up summer irrigation and consequent depletion of storages in the reservoirs in Karnataka, in contravention of the final order passed by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in February 2007.

In its application, Tamil Nadu said the Tribunal in its final award on February 5, 2007 had allocated Kerala 30 tmc ft; Karnataka 270 tmcft; Tamil Nadu 419 tmcft and Puduchery seven tmcft out of the total 740 tmcft available for allocation.

Unable to take up mechanisation due to water, power shortage'

Expressing concern over the “bleak prospects” for agriculture sector on account of various factors, the Tiruchi District Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association has appealed to the government to amend the Land Ceiling Act and encourage cooperative and corporate farming in the State.

Apprehending severe water crisis in Bangalore in the near future, the Expert Committee constituted to assess long-term additional needs of water for the City, has urged the government to re-look at the controversial reservoir project at Mekedatu that was shelved earlier.

The 10-member committee headed by B N Thyagaraja, retired BWSSB chairman, submitted its report to the government in December 2011, suggesting short-term and long-term measures to tide over the crisis.