Karnataka to Tamil Nadu: Not a drop of water
The Cauvery talks between Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa and her Karnataka counterpart Jagadish Shettar collapsed in less than an hour at a Bengaluru hotel on Thursday.
Presenting the precarious situation in the delta region, Ms Jayalalithaa pushed for immediate release of “a bare minimum” of 30 tmcft of Cauvery water in the next 15 days to save the samba (long-term) crops. Mr Shettar’s response was, “not a drop of water”.
Responding positively to the SC directive that the two neighbours could negotiate a settlement for the long-drawn Cauvery dispute, Ms Jayalalithaa led her delegation to meet the Karnataka CM hoping for succour for her farmers. She even began her speech in Kannada to exhibit her warmth but all the effort seemed to have gone in waste.
Emerging from the 40-minute meeting, she told the media that she had explained to Mr Shettar there would be ‘calamity’ for TN farmers as the standing crops would wither if he did not order release of water. “But despite all our pleadings, the Karnataka government was firm in saying that it could not release even a single drop of water.”
The SC, she recalled, had asked the two states to negotiate in a ‘give-and-take’ manner. “When they are not willing to give, how can we take?” she quipped, visibly distressed that the talks failed despite her honest attempts to get Mr Shettar to see reason and act fairly.
“I asked Karnataka chief minister, you cannot say you cannot release any water at all. We have asked for 30 tmcft, please tell us what you can release, name a figure,” she said, adding Shettar and his irrigation minister kept repeating that they could not release any water at all.
“So we will go back to SC tomorrow and inform it about the outcome of today’s meeting,” she said.
Predictably, there was widespread indignation in TN at the Bengaluru debacle as many felt that Mr Shettar had insulted his guest. “It was obvious that the BJP CM was only interested in protecting his vote-bank for the state elections happening early next year,” said a senior TN official.
“If he had decided not to give us even a drop of water, why call us and insult us? Why did they (Karnataka) not inform the SC they had nothing to discuss when the court suggested talks?”
The case is coming up before the SC on Friday.
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