Cauvery Issue: Dy CM Shivakumar to Speak to CM, Legal Team About CWRC’s Order to Release Water to TN – News18

With the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) directing Karnataka to release Cauvery water ensuring 5,000 cusecs realisation at Biligundlu in Tamil Nadu for the next fortnight, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Friday said he would speak to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other legal experts about the prevailing situation.

Shivakumar, who holds the major and medium irrigation projects portfolio, said the CWRC has ordered release of 5,000 cusecs of water every day though Tamil Nadu had demanded releasing 24,000 cusecs every day.

“Our people have fought it vigorously. We have explained our situation (to the CWRC). The technical committee too presented the case. Our officers too have explained the exact situation. We are going to speak to our legal experts. I will speak to the Chief Minister. I have spoken to our officers about the prevailing situation,” Shivakumar told reporters in Mysuru.

The DCM said Karnataka was earlier asked to release 10,000 cusecs of water everyday which was reduced to 5,000 cusecs in view of less rainfall. When asked whether water is being released, Shivakumar said Karnataka has been asked to release from today itself but the government has to see the pros and cons as well. “We are dependent on our legal team. We will discuss with them and take a decision. I have not spoken about releasing water because we got it (the order) today,” he explained. Shivakumar also said that the Cauvery case is coming up in the Supreme Court on Friday. In this regard, he said he will speak to legal experts to protect the interests of the state.

Sharing details of the current status of dams of Cauvery basin, he said the Gross Storage Capacity (GSC) of Krishnaraja Sagar Dam is 24 TMC but today there is 15 TMC Live Storage. The GSC of Kabini Reservoir is 13 TMC while it has three TMC live storage. In Harangi, GSC is 7.8 TMC while live storage is 7 TMC. In Hemavathi reservoir, the GSC is 25 TMC and 21 live storage.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)