Cauvery water dispute: Karnataka's Siddaramaiah government pushed to the wall as protests erupt over SC order

BENGALURU: It’s deja vu in Karnataka with 'rastas rokos', arson and a state government pushed to the wall over release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu in a year where the rain failed in catchment areas and there is standing crop in both states in dire need of water.

The Supreme Court, hearing an appeal from Tamil Nadu for more water to save its 40,000 acres of standing samba crop, directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs (cubic foot per second) for 10 days.

According to Karnataka’s water resources minister MB Patil, this works out to about 13 thousand million cubic feet (TMCFT) of water to be released to Tamil Nadu, at a time when the storage in all the four Cauvery river reservoirs in Karnataka is 49 TMCFT.

"We require about 40 TMCFT of water for drinking water needs of Bengaluru, Mysuru cities, small towns and villages that are fed by Cauvery. We had offered to release water to Tamil Nadu at the rate of 10,000 cusecs for five days, which is what the SC had ordered in the distress year, 2012-13. It would have worked out to 4 TMC. Now we have got this order and we have to figure out how to implement it," Patil said.

He and CM Siddaramaiah are being pilloried by activists and farmers in the Cauvery heartland for "not presenting Karnataka’s case properly," leading to the Supreme Court order.