AMN
The Cauvery Supervisory Committee will meet in New Delhi today to decide the quantum of Cauvery river water to be released by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu and other states. The Committee has been analysing the data submitted by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu about withdrawal of water, its utilisation, variation in rainfall and its impact on the actual run-off over a period of 29 years in their respective Cauvery basin areas. The committee headed by the Union Water Resources Secretary had sought the information from them in its last meeting on the 12th of this month.
Chief Secretaries of the Cauvery basin states – Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry and Kerala are its members. While Chairman of Central Water Commission is also a member, Chief Engineer of the CWC is its Member-Secretary. In an interim order on September 5, Supreme Court had asked Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water daily for next 10 days to Tamil Nadu, leading to protests in parts of Karnataka.
The apex court had also asked Tamil Nadu government to approach the committee to decide on the quantum of Cauvery water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states after the period of 10 days was over. However, under pressure following the protests, the Karnataka government approached the Supreme Court on September 11 seeking modification in the interim order. Hearing the plea, the Supreme Court then amended its order, directing Karnataka to release a reduced quantum of 12,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu till September 20.
Ahead of today’s meeting, security has been beefed up in Mandya, Chamrajnagar, Mysuru, Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka. Police said, Rapid Action Force and BSF platoons are being deployed in Bengaluru Rural and Kolar districts which share borders with Tamil Nadu. Police have been deployed on national highways to check traffic disruptions likely to be made by pro-Kannada outfits in next two days.
Supreme Court on September 15 had taken Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments to task for failing to check violence following its order on the Cauvery dispute. The apex court had also directed both states to ensure that there is no violence, agitation, destruction and damage to property following its order and asked them to maintain peace, calm and dignity for law. Property worth several crore has been damaged in violence in the two states after the Supreme Court order.