Basavraj Bommai accuses Congress regime of releasing water to Tamil Nadu, Dy CM DK Shivakumar hits back

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Basavraj Bommai on Wednesday slammed the state Congress regime for releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu after the neighbouring state approached the Supreme Court over the Mekedatu dispute, calling it an “unforgivable offence” to deny water to one’s own state’s farmers for another state. Tamil Nadu, he said, had used twice as much water for the Kuruvai crop — a short-term, highly water-dependent crop that grows in the Cauvery Delta. “You [the state government] have created a situation where the share of water of our farmers is diverted to Tamil Nadu,” he said in a series of tweets on twitter.

He also slammed what he called a lack of consensus on Cauvery water management in Karnataka. “The day after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that Cauvery water cannot be released, the irrigation department led by Deputy CM [DK Shivakumar] has released water to Tamil Nadu,” he said. The state government, he said, should immediately stop the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu and convince the Supreme Court of the actual situation of the state.

Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, who holds the Water Resources portfolio, however, denied Bommai's allegations and said the state government had little say on release of water from KRS reservoir to Tamil Nadu as it came within the domain of the Centre. Karnataka, he told the media, has to go by the advice of the legal experts on the subject, not decide on its own and later pay a big price. The Congress party will protect the interests of the state’s farmers.