Cauvery water dispute: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah to hold emergency meeting on July 12

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar has convened an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the Cauvery Water Management Authority’s (CWMA) directive Thursday that the state should release one tmcft water daily to Tamil Nadu until July 31.

The emergency meeting will be attended by all ministers from the Cauvery basin.

Earlier in the day, Shivakumar had expressed the government’s inability to comply with the CWMA directive.

“We still don’t have water. It hasn’t rained enough. Let’s all pray for more rains. The situation isn’t what it may look like. It hasn’t rained enough to fill up our lakes and dams,” Shivakumar, the water resources minister, said.

At the CWMA meeting, Karnataka said it is facing a 28.71 per cent shortfall in cumulative inflows into the state’s four reservoirs. Between June 1 and July 9, cumulative inflows were 41.651 tmcft.

Karnataka urged the CWMA to wait until July 25 before taking a decision.

But Tamil Nadu argued that Karnataka had received normal inflows. Tamil Nadu also accused Karnataka of not releasing environmental flows between February and May this year.