Sunday, Jun 23, 2002
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Karnataka
By Our Staff Reporter
Speaking to presspersons on the sidelines of the symposium on terrorism at the 65th Conference of Presiding Officers of Legislative Bodies in India at the Vidhana Soudha, he said the interim order of the Cauvery River Water Tribunal could be implemented only when there was sufficient rainfall in Karnataka. Asked about the Tamil Nadu State Cabinet decision to boycott the Cauvery River Authority (CRA), headed by the Prime Minister, and the Cauvery Monitoring Committee, and approach the Supreme Court for a direction to the Karnataka Government to implement the interim order and also the final award, Mr. Krishna said he could not comment without going through the authenticated version of the Cabinet decision, and added that he could not answer hypothetical questions. There were no rains and, naturally, no appreciable flow into the dam. He said he could not understand in what context the Tamil Nadu Government wanted to boycott the CRA, which helped in resolving the issue. Asked whether he would talk to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, about her Government's decision to resolve the issue, Mr. Krishna asked, "Will it help?" "One day, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, threatens Karnataka, and the next day, Ms. Jayalalithaa does it. How can I react every time?'' he asked. In a memorandum to Mr. Krishna today, 16 MLAs and five MPs of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) from Tamil Nadu made a plea to immediately release water to the Mettur Dam to continue agricultural operations on 40 lakh hectares of land in Thanjavur District. They said a positive response would be highly remembered by the PMK as well as the farmers of Tamil Nadu. The PMK President, G.K. Mani, MLA, who led the delegation, said that normally, water released from Mettur on June 12 would have facilitated agricultural operations in their State, which was facing an acute scarcity of water for irrigation. He said the non-release of Cauvery waters might cause untold misery to the farmers and the State would face a severe famine, which would have a cascading effect on the economy. Hoping that Mr. Krishna would understand the gravity of the situation, they urged him to save the farmers in Tamil Nadu and strengthen the age-old ties between the two States. Meanwhile, in a press release, the former minister, H.N. Nanje Gowda, termed the Tamil Nadu Government's decision mala fide, ill advised, and counter productive. The pre-emptive action of Ms. Jayalalithaa was not in keeping with the larger interests of farmers in the entire Cauvery Basin. Political expediency should not outweigh the interests of farmers, he added. Between June 1, 2001 and May 31, 2002, Karnataka released 215 tmcft. of water, including the water available below Biligundlu up to the Mettur Dam as per the assessment of the tribunal. The gross storage, inclusive of dead storage, in all the four reservoirs was 21.95 tmcft.. This was one of the worst distress periods Karnataka had ever experienced. Mr. Nanje Gowda said it was a fit case for Karnataka to approach the tribunal, as its farmers were facing severe drought due to the failure of the monsoon. Tamil Nadu got 10 tmcft. of additional water during the last water year. Tamil Nadu, he said, which was a party to the decision when the CRA was formed, could not boycott it now.
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