Bengaluru: Karnataka government on Monday filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking modification of the court’s order of September 20.
The Congress government, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told the apex court that it cannot release any more water from the River Cauvery to neighbouring Tamil Nadu till December. “Any additional water can be released only in December because Karnataka’s major cities barely have enough drinking water currently,” the government told Supreme Court.
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had asked Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu on a daily basis from September 21 to 27. The modification plea has been filed after the mandate from both the Houses of the state legislature to conserve Cauvery water only for the drinking water needs of Bengaluru and other towns in the state.
A discussion was held between Water Resources Minister M B Patil and Chief Secretary Aravind Jadhav with the state’s legal team, headed by F S Nariman at New Delhi on Sunday.
The water in the Cauvery reservoirs is just 27.6 tmcft, which could barely meet the drinking water needs of Bengaluru and other towns in Karnataka’s Cauvery basin, whereas Tamil Nadu’s Mettur Dam has 50 tmcft available.
The apex court’s September 20 order followed earlier directions for Karnataka to release more water than it had been sharing in recent months.
Karnataka, including the capital of Bengaluru has witnessed violent protests over the water-sharing, provoking an appeal from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for calm.
