Cauvery: PM to speak to Krishna

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 10. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, today assured an all-party delegation from Tamil Nadu that he would speak to the Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna, on Tamil Nadu's demand for the immediate release of the Cauvery water to save standing crops in the delta.

The Union Water Resources Minister, Mr. Arjun Charan Sethi, who was also present, apprised the Prime Minister of the situation. The Minister said that while the Centre was aware of the gravity of the situation in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka had informed that it too was facing severe drought conditions and that a solution had to be found keeping in view the entire situation.

After the meeting, the Tamil Nadu Education Minister, Mr. M Thambi Durai, who led the over 100-strong delegation, said the Prime Minister, who is Chairman of the Cauvery River Authority, has promised them to safeguard the interests of Tamil Nadu.

Interestingly, the DMK's representation in the delegation was limited to a lone MLA, Mr. Asokan. The DMK's Union Ministers and MPs were conspicuous by their absence. Asked why none of the Union Ministers of the DMK was present, Mr. Thambi Durai said it reflected how serious the DMK felt towards an issue that concerned all.

The delegation would also meet the Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, seeking her assistance in getting the Congress-ruled Karnataka agree to release water.

In a five-page memorandum, the delegation sought the Prime Minister's intervention to ensure the release of one tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water per day till the end of October to save the standing kuruvai crops and redress the problems of farmers in the delta. It said the inflows into the Mettur reservoir this year had been low from the first month of June and as of September 8 this year, Tamil Nadu received only 51.11 tmcft as against 115.90 tmcft prescribed by the Tribunal, leaving a shortfall of 64.79 tmcft.

While the CRA Monitoring Committee, which met on September 6, decided to review the situation after five days for deciding the next course of action, it said the storage at the Mettur dam, including dead storage, stood at 11.24 tmcft and would reach its dead storage within the next five days.

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