Karnataka not honouring directions of the Cauvery River Authority

With Karanataka refusing to release water as per the directions of the Cauvery River Authority headed by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, the Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court for a direction to Karnataka to release 2 tmcft of water daily for 24 days till the onset of the north-east monsoon.

The worrying decline in inflow into the major reservoirs in the Cauvery basin has forced the Karnataka government to reject the formula suggested by the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) for sharing the river water with Tamil Nadu.

To make matters worse, the south west monsoon is all set to end in the next 15 days, dampening any hopes of improvement in inflows in Harangi, Hemavathi, KRS and Kabini reservoirs in the Cauvery basin.

Further releases to be based on inflows into Kabini and Krishnarajasagar

The goodwill gesture extended by Karnataka to release 10,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu till September 20 has come to an end and further releases are expected to be purely based on the inflows into the Kabini and the Krishnarajasagar reservoirs, given the differences that have cropped up after a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority.

Karnataka is expected to convey to the Supreme Court that it is keen on adhering to the water release formula prescribed by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) and that the vagaries of monsoon has prevented it from sticking to the formula so far this year.

Tamil Nadu had approached the apex court seeking a direction for the release of nearly 25 tmcft of water, claiming it as the shortfall based on the distress water-sharing formula. The petition of the lower riparian State is coming up for hearing on Monday.

The Supreme Court on Monday again refused to hear a plea of the Tamil Nadu government seeking a direction to the Karnataka Government restraining it from drawing extra water from Cauvery basin reservoirs.

A bench of Justices D K Jain and A R Dave told C S Vaidyanathan, counsel for the Tamil Nadu government, to mention the matter again on Friday for hearing the application.

Full two months into monsoon, water levels at major hydro-electric (power) generation reservoirs in Karnataka have increased substantially.

The government has sanctioned Rs 87 lakh to develop roads, which connect Harangi reservoir, said MLA M P Appachu Ranjan.

Kushalnagar, dhns:

Harangi Irrigation Advisory Committee has decided to release water into the canals for the farmers by February 20 so as to fecilitate the farmers to grow Khareef crops in catchment area.

The water-level in the Harangi reservoir on Cauvery basin has been decreased considerably due to lack of sufficient rains.

As a result, the hydro electricity unit installed by the Energy Development Company Limited (EDCL) will suffer setback in achieving the proposed production target this year.

Kushalnagar: Kudige Rameshwara Niravari Balakedarara Sahakara Sangha has alleged large scale misappropriations in the repair works of the main canal of Harangi irrigation project. Addressing a news conference, Sangha President I S Ganesh said that the repair works which were taken up recently are of substandard quality and said that the engineers and contractors responsible for such misappropriations must be punished. They said that the matter has been brought to the notice of MLA M P Appachuranjan and senior officials too.

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