Search the Internet          Tips

Krishna unhappy with TN boycott of Cauvery team

Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna has expressed unhappiness with Tamil Nadu's non-cooperation with the Cauvery Monitoring Committee that visited the two states to inspect their reservoirs and the crops that depend on the river's waters.

The Supreme Court has asked the Union government to file an affidavit by September 27 indicating the inflow of Cauvery waters into the Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu to ascertain whether the directions of the CRA and the apex court have been complied with.

The court wanted to know how much water had been released since its direction to release 1.25 thousand million cubic feet of water, which was subsequently lowered to 0.8 tmc feet by the CRA.

The CMC team, on the direction of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, surveyed the reservoirs in the Cauvery river basin to assess the ground realities and help the CRA resolve the dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

But Tamil Nadu declined to allow the team to inspect its reservoirs, particularly Mettur, or its standing crops, saying the Cauvery case was before the Supreme Court, making it 'sub judice'.

The Supreme Court is to hear on September 30 Krishna's reply to Tamil Nadu's charge that his government has not been implementing the court's interim order or that of the CRA.

The court had directed the fact-finding team to submit its report by Friday on the storage levels in the four reservoirs in Karnataka and the Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu, and the condition of the standing crops in both riparian states.

On suspending release of water to Tamil Nadu from September 19, Krishna said, "Our commitment to the CRA was subject to inflows on a daily basis and availability of water in the reservoirs." The failure of the monsoon has meant poor storage levels, he said.

Though Karnataka started releasing 1.25 tmc feet of water from September 4 on the directive of the Supreme Court, the outflow was reduced to 0.8 tmc feet from September 8 as per the CRA's order.

But citing a continued fall in storage levels in the absence of inflows and lack of rains, the state suspended the release of water to the Mettur dam from September 18.

Karnataka Law Minister D B Chandre Gowda said the state would file a contempt petition against Tamil Nadu for failing to co-operate with the central team. "The CRA has the apex court's sanction," he said. "The Cauvery Monitoring Committee, which was formed on a direction by the CRA, has legal validity. If the Tamil Nadu government is not ready to participate in a meeting of the CMC, it is a violation of the court's directive."

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister C Ponnaiyan on Friday criticised Congress general secretary Anil Shastri for "scurrilous and malicious" personal attacks on Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's handling of the Cauvery waters issue.

Ponnaiyan said, "As the Congress party's pathetic attempts at regrouping are running into rough weather, their attempts at character assassination of our leader are becoming more and more strident."

Earlier, Shastri had charged Jayalalithaa with lacking the qualities for being an able statesman, and said the Cauvery dispute could not be resolved as long as she was Tamil Nadu's chief minister.

Ponnaiyan said, "Statesmanship can be employed only while dealing with statesmen. Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna, who has reneged on every promise and ignored the orders of the Supreme Court and the Cauvery River Authority, can hardly be considered a statesman."

Cauvery Water Dispute: The Complete Coverage

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report