Wednesday, Nov 06, 2002
Wednesday, Nov 06, 2002 |
| Southern States | ||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Southern States
-
Tamil Nadu
By A.V. Ragunathan
The officials also do not know whether the KRS sluices are open or shut. Apart from conflicting reports from Bangalore, there is no official information even from the Central Water Commission, which is regularly collecting data on the flow at four points: T.Narasipura, Kollegal, Biligundlu and Ooratchikottai. The PWD officials said they have been following a standardised formula for measuring water flow in the Mettur dam. They normally adopt the ``reverse process'', in which the water level and capacity are arrived at by taking into account the outflow, the storage difference and evaporation losses. The evaporation losses are being calculated on well-codified norms, based on seasonal variations. The sources underscore the point that since they are taking cognisance of the flow into the reservoir in its entirety, there is no way of distinguishing between the ``conscious release from Karnataka reservoirs and rain water''. It has been the practice of Karnataka to give overall figures for the realisation in the Mettur dam, based on the details furnished by the CWC. But as the Mettur PWD is getting the information rather late, it will be of no consequence. According to the executive engineer of Mettur PWD, N. Subramanian, the Supreme Court has directed Karnataka Government to ``release'' water at 9,000 cusecs till November 6, and at 6,000 cusecs from November 7 to 15. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to verify whether Karnataka is actually releasing water from its reservoirs, or just taking cover under the natural flow of rains from the catchment areas. The catchment area downstream of the KRS, running to about 190 km, usually gets good rainfall during monsoon, and as only the realisation in Mettur is accounted for, it will be difficult to verify whether the Karnataka Government has complied with the Supreme Court direction. Actually, Karnataka should have released 159 tmcft this year (till now) but only 59 tmcft was received so far, thus leaving a shortfall of 100 tmcft. On Tuesday, the level in the Mettur dam stood at 61.91 feet (full level 120 feet) and the storage was 26.131 tmcft; the figures for the same day last year were 78.78 feet and 49.752 tmcft. But this season, Tamil Nadu lost the kuruvai crop, and samba prospects are also bleak. The only saving grace in the past one week is intermittent rain; consequently, the release from the Mettur dam has been stopped since Monday afternoon. Officials and farmers are hoping against hope that the Karnataka Government would go by the exact meaning of the term ``release'', and would not take cover under ``overall data''. Otherwise, Tamil Nadu's rightful share of 205 tmcft from the Cauvery would remain a pipe dream. With the issue shuttling between the Supreme Court and the Cauvery River Authority, without any lasting solution being found, the cloud of uncertainty and suspense hangs over Tamil Nadu and its farmers, say the sources.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | Home |
Copyright © 2002, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
