Chennai, May 19 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately convene a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority to decide on various issues relating to sharing of the river between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
In a letter to the prime minister Friday, the text of which was released to media here Saturday, Jayalalithaa said: “The Cauvery River Authority last met on 10.2.2003 and its meeting is long overdue.”
She said the Karnataka government is not ensuring the flow in the Cauvery river during June to September as per the monthly pattern prescribed in the interim order in force or as per the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.
“Further, the Government of Karnataka has been unjustly utilising the water for summer irrigation from February to May by depleting the storage in its four major reservoirs,” Jayalalithaa said.
Owing to depletion of storage during summer months, Karnataka impounds all the initial monsoon flows in its reservoirs and releases water only when they start surplusing, thus affecting the inflows into the Mettur Dam, which consequently affects the crops very badly in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa said.
Citing the interim order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal restraining Karnataka from increasing its area under cultivation beyond 11.20 lakh acres, Jayalalithaa said Karnataka is not furnishing year-wise details of area under irrigation.
According Jayalalithaa, Tamil Nadu may face distress condition any time now and hence a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority has to be convened to consider the distress sharing formula.
