'Central team convinced'

Minister for Water Resources Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday claimed that the State has succeeded in convincing the Central team over its inability to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, as per the directions of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA).

Speaking with mediapersons after a meeting with the Central team members, who are assessing the ground situation in the Cauvery basin, he said that the officials have understood the gravity of the situation and that they will prepare a favourable report.

The Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) chairperson, D V Singh and top officials of the Central Water Commission (CWC) are assessing the water requirement based on the crop situation in the basin region, in the wake of the recent CRA order to Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu every day. The team will inspect till Monday. The CMC meeting is scheduled on October 11.

“The teams have so far inspected the KRS, Kabini and Hemavathi reservoirs and have interacted with the farmers.”

The State government has provided statistics on how the basin regions, especially those at the tail-end, have been affected due to the release of water, the minister said.

Earlier, Chief Engineer of Union Water Resources Department K C Jacob, member of the team, said they have understood the problems of the farmers. “There is scarcity of water due to failure of monsoon. We will prepare a report based on the facts,” he added.