The CMs of the two states that take a lion’s share of the waters of the Cauvery river are going to meet after a gap of 14 years, The CMs of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka will sit for bilateral talks on the decades-old sensitive issue of water. They may meet at a private venue, possibly the Karnataka CM’s residence.
This will be the first time the CMs of the southern neighbours will be meeting face to face since the Cauvery River Water authority (CRA) came into existence in 1998. The Supreme Court nudged the two in this direction.
Experts at this end of the river feel the move by Tamil Nadu is a ‘shrewd’ one and it might just give the state the edge in the event of the case coming up in SC for hearing on Nov.30.
The CMs of the two states last met officially three years ago when Karunanidhi and B.S. Yedyurappa met in 2009 for a different cause.
They jointly unveiled the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in Bengaluru and Kannada poet Sarvagnar in Chennai. This was in a bid to improve the relationship between the governments and the people of the two states.
Prior to this, CMs had met in August 1998 on the prompting of the then Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee to try and end the conflict on Cauvery.
In fact, all four CMs of Cauvery water sharing states — TN, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry — had then met. In that meeting Karnataka CM agreed to the creation of CRA under the chairmanship of PM.
Ms Jayalalithaa will fly to the garden city along with a battery of senior officials and experts on Thursday morning.
Besides, chief secretary Debendranath Sarangi, PWD Secretary, chief minister’s secretary, Cauvery technical committee chairman and member and a few senior PWD officials will attend the meeting sources said.
Besides, a team of Information department officials and media persons will also reach Bengaluru to report the event.
Distress sharing formula will prove costly to Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa is in for some tough negotiations during talks with Karnataka CM Jagdeesh Shettar on Thursday.
Even if Karnataka agrees, which seems unlikely given the belligerence it had shown thus far, TN cannot afford to settle for sharing water on pro-rata basis under the distress sharing formula.
The odds are stacked heavily against TN –the current storage position of Karnataka reservoirs are not conducive to accept water sharing on a pro-rata basis. Krishnarajasagar, Kabini, Hemavathi and Harangi jointly store around 50tmcft.
As per distress sharing formula, which gives TN half the storage, Karnataka would only release 25tmcft at most.
“That will be less than half the delta demand of 54tmcft required for the next 55 days to save the second crop,” senior TN government sources said wondering how distress sharing formula could be accepted when they have already used most of the storage.
The current samba acreage is 14.39 lakh acres. The distress sharing formula would have been acceptable if Karnataka had obliged early October when its reservoirs stored way over 100tmcft, including the 30tmcft in its irrigation canals.
In fact, TN moved SC seeking 48tmcft under distress sharing formula only after factoring in the then joint storage position.
Since the second week of October, the joint storage of Karnataka reservoirs reduced by over 30tmcft, notwithstanding the rain received during that period.
Experts and farmers here attribute the quick depletion in water level in Karnataka reservoirs to the steep rise in cultivable area and the state promoting summer cultivation, violating the tribunal order.
The stats Karnataka officials submitted to a Central team recently are testimony to the violation. The area under cultivation in Karnataka is well over 15 lakh acres, against the 11lakhs stipulated by the tribunal. EOM. Karthik