On Tuesday, DK Shivakumar, the chief minister of Karnataka, said the Supreme Court would soon announce its decision regarding the Cauvery water dispute and that it would “safeguard the interests” of the state.
Shivakumar said, “Let the hearing finish. We will put forth our arguments and we will safeguard the interests of the state.”
“Let the Supreme Court verdict come. Then I will react,” he added.
This comes a day after the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) passed an interim order asking Karnataka to release 5,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu daily for the next 15 days till September 2.
The Supreme Court said it lacked the necessary expertise to rule on the Tamil Nadu government’s request for the release of Cauvery water on Friday. Instead, it requested a report from the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) on the amount of the release made by Karnataka. The Tamil Nadu government has petitioned the supreme court to order Karnataka to release 24,000 cusecs of water per day from its reservoirs.
The Karnataka government filed an affidavit on Thursday in opposition to Tamil Nadu’s application, claiming that the application is predicated on the notion that this year is a typical year for rainfall. The government claimed that Tamil Nadu’s request for Karnataka to guarantee the release of 36.76 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) stipulated for September 2023 lacked a legal foundation because the amount was set in a normal water year and was therefore inapplicable to this water year, which is currently experiencing water shortages.
