Bangalore, August 21: Minister for Water Resources Basavaraj Bommai, on Thursday disputed Tamil Nadu’s claim that there was a shortfall of 20 (thousand million cubic feet) TMC ft in Cauvery water release by the state.
According to him, it was only 8.49 TMC ft in the last four months. Further, Bommai maintained at a media conference here, that Tamil Nadu had adequate storage in its Mettur dam to meet its requirements. “In the last four months Karnataka has released 66.16 tmc ft of water as against the requirement of 74.65 tmc ft”, Bommai stated.
Seeking to allay fears of farmers in the Cauvery belt in the state, he said “ we will maintain sufficient water for our farmers.
We are maintaining water level in our reservoirs keeping our farmers interest in mind and there is no need to worry”.
His clarification came amidst charges by the opposition and some farmers organisations that the government was releasing water to Tamil Nadu depriving the state’s farmers of water.
According to Bommai Tamil Nadu had 63 tmc ft of water storage in Mettur dam as of now compared to 44.4 tmc ft in the corresponding period last year and it had no problem in releasing water for the main Samba paddy crop season, Bommai said.
Due to failure of rains this month the distress situation had already begun he said, hinting that state cannot release the full quota of water demanded by Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu raised the issue during recent talks between the riparian states on implementation of four hydro power projects in the Cauvery basin convened by the Centre in Chennai. It claimed that water released by Karnataka fell short of the quantum stipulated by the inter-state Cauvery waters dispute tribunal award. Bommai said today’s inflow into the KRS stood at 21,582 cusec. As against this the outflow was 18,871 cusec into the river and 11,266 cuse sec into the canal.
—Agencies