Subheadline: Karnataka’s water-resources minister says the state is considering challenging the direction to release 6,000 cusecs a day to Tamil Nadu.
Karnataka is considering approaching the Supreme Court against an order directing it to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu every day, Water Resources Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy said on Tuesday. The state government is expected to decide on the proposed legal challenge after discussions with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday.
The direction was issued by the Cauvery Water Management Authority’s regulatory committee, according to the minister. Tamil Nadu had sought the release of 17,000 cusecs of water, but the committee ordered Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs daily. The minister described the decision as unreasonable and said Karnataka’s representatives had argued that the state’s current water availability did not support the order.
“After discussing it with the Chief Minister, a decision on approaching the Supreme Court will be taken on Wednesday,” Cheluvarayaswamy told reporters. He said Karnataka’s officials had presented the ground-level situation regarding rainfall and river inflows in the Cauvery basin during the committee meeting.
The minister said inflows into the Cauvery basin had declined considerably over the past week. In that situation, he argued, releasing even 6,000 cusecs a day would be difficult for Karnataka. The statement did not specify the duration of the committee’s direction or provide a separate figure for the water currently available in the Cauvery reservoirs.
Cheluvarayaswamy said around half of the water stored in Karnataka’s reservoirs had been reserved for drinking-water purposes. He also referred to water being supplied for crops through the Bhadra and Upper Krishna projects, and said reservoir releases were being regulated to prevent drinking-water difficulties in the Chitradurga region.
The minister criticised constitutional and administrative bodies operating from New Delhi for, in his view, failing to understand conditions on the ground. He said similar orders had been issued in the past without sufficient consideration of the state’s actual water situation. His comments reflected the Karnataka government’s stated position on the committee’s decision; the report did not include a response from Tamil Nadu or the water-management authority.
The dispute centres on how available Cauvery basin water should be divided between the two states while inflows remain under pressure. Karnataka’s government must balance any interstate release with drinking-water requirements, irrigation demand and the condition of its reservoirs. The minister said the state’s formal response, including whether to seek intervention from the Supreme Court, would be decided after the proposed meeting with the Chief Minister on Wednesday.
