Cauvery Water: SC To Hear Matter On 6 September; Release Of 5000 Cusecs Per Day To Tamil Nadu To Continue

A 3-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and PK Mishra today (1 September) said that they would hear Tamil Nadu's plea seeking directions to Karnataka regarding the release of Cauvery water on Wednesday (6 September).

It stated that meanwhile, the release of 5000 cusecs per day for 15 days, as ordered by the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) on 29 August, would continue.

Tamil Nadu had sought the release of 24000 cusecs for the remainder of August (from 14 August). It had also asked the Court to direct Karnataka to make up for the shortfall in June-July and ensure it releases the water stipulated by the award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (as modified by the Supreme Court in 2018) for the month of September.

Farmers in Karnataka have organised protests against the release of water to Tamil Nadu after the state government began releasing water as per the CWMA order.

The CWMA has submitted its report regarding the amount of water released by Karnataka as asked by the Court during the previous hearing.

As per a report by LawBeat, the CWMA stated that Karnataka had complied with the directions of the Authority issued on 11 August, to release water from the KRS and Kabini reservoirs together so that the inflow at Biligundlu in Tamil Nadu would amount to 10000 cusecs per day.

It said the member representing Karnataka had informed the Authority in its meeting on 29 August that in compliance with the directions, 14898 cusecs were released between 12 August and 26 August.

Speaking about the decision to order the release of 5000 cusecs to The Hindu, Saumitra Kumar Haldar, the chairman of the Authority had said that the inflow in Karnataka's reservoirs this year was 51 per cent less and the decision was taken based on parameters like current year data, long term average, inflows, outflows and discussions between the states.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Annamalai had earlier criticised Chief Minister MK Stalin for not being able to settle the issue during his visit to Bangalore for the meeting of the I.N.D.I.A alliance partners and writing to Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in the matter.

Also Read: Cauvery Water: Karnataka Begins Releasing 5000 Cusecs Per Day To Tamil Nadu After CWMA Order