Duraimurugan says Karnataka govt will honour SC's order in Cauvery Water issue

CHENNAI: Welcoming the Supreme Court's decision to reject the Karnataka government appeal against the direction of the CWMA to release 5,000 cusecs of water daily for 15 days, Tamil Nadu Water Resource Minister Duraimurugan expressed confidence that Karnataka government would comply with the direction of the country's top court.

"It is the SC order. If the Karnataka government fails to execute the order, It will amount to contempt of court. I hope they will not go to that extent, " said the minister and exuded confidence that the Karnataka government would release water as per the direction of the CWMA.

The SC, on hearing the appeal of Karnataka government on Thursday, refused to intervene in CWMA's order to release 5,000 cusecs of water daily for 15 days.

Ruling out the possibility of convening an all party meeting over the issue, the minister said that the state government would judiciously use the water released from Karnataka judiciously to save the Kuruvai crops.

On farmers' protest in Karnataka against the release of Cauvery Water, the minister said there is a misunderstanding among the farmers in the neighbouring state. "They are assuming that TN is asking for water from their share. It is not so. Since the river originates in Karnataka, it does not mean they have all the rights. In fact, the river runs for a longer distance in TN than Karnataka. And the lower riparian states have more rights. Meanwhile, I am not denying that the farmers in Karnataka are also in need of Cauvery water. They should also get Cauvery water, " he said.

There has been no issue when there was surplus water due to good rain. But the issue is flaring up during the distress period. Even during that period, the states should share the available water among themselves.

Hence, the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal order clearly pointed out on sharing of water on a per pro-rata basis during distress period, he said.

Engineers from TN deployed in K R Sagar, Hemavathi, and Kabini reservoirs monitoring the inflow and storage level of water in these reservoirs and updating the same to the officials here.

Similarly, the engineers of the Karnataka government in TN (Mettur) monitor the inflow of water from Belingudlu.