KALABURAGI: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said the reservoirs in the Cauvery river basin do not have enough storage to release water to Tamil Nadu.
“We are filing an appeal before the Supreme Court, briefing it as to why Karnataka could not implement the orders of the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA). Karnataka needs more than 106 tmcft of water in Cauvery river if we have to release water to Tamil Nadu. Karnataka needs 30 tmcft for drinking water purposes, 70 tmcft to save standing crops and 3 tmcft for industries. But as on date, we only have 53 tmcft,” he said.
He termed former chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s statement that Karnataka has released water to Tamil Nadu as politically motivated. All the previous governments, including Yediyurappa’s, released water to the neighbouring state when they were in power, he added.
“In a normal year, Karnataka used to release 177.25 tmcft of water. So far, we have released 37.7 tmcft. Let the former chief minister tell us where we have released 99 tmcft to Tamil Nadu. The CWMA has suggested that we release 500 cusses of water to Tamil Nadu. But we have not released it as we do not have sufficient storage,” he added.
