Cauvery water dispute: SC asks Karnataka to keep releasing 2,000 cusecs to TN; will there be problem in summer?

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Karnataka to continue releasing 2,000 cusecs of water every day from the Mekedatu dam of the Cauvery River to Tamil Nadu, essentially keeping its interim order unchanged. The October 18, 2016, order had come from a bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar.

The latest order has given rise to concerns in Karnataka in general and water-scarce Bengaluru in particular, because continuous release of Cauvery water could leave very little for the state. The Cauvery water row has waged on for long, and is currently before the apex court looking for an amicable solution that both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu can agree to.

In the meantime, the row and the Supreme Court's interim order on it have led to widespread protests and unrest in Karnataka, where life came to a standstill more than once last year. The Karnataka government, meanwhile, has been constantly saying that releasing this amount of water every day will not leave much for the state and the people in it: From farmers to common men, everyone will suffer in the summer months.

The Siddaramaiah-led government had at one time even taken the bold step of defying an earlier order of the apex court, but that did not pan out as expected, despite the Congress, which is in power in the state, receiving the support of political rivals — the BJP and the JD-S.

Now, Karnataka has to keep on releasing 2,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu till February 7, when the apex court will resume hearing the case and a bunch of appeals associated with it for division of water between the two states as well as Kerala, which has also staked its claim for a share of the river's water.

Meanwhile, there is no official word on the high-level team the Central government had constituted in order to look into the matter.