The Supreme Court is scheduled to resume the hearing of the Cauvery water dispute on Wednesday. The hearing would be resumed after the apex court on Tuesday asked the Karnataka government to release 2000 cusecs of water every day to Tamil Nadu until further notice.
The court also asked both the states to maintain peace and harmony.
In response to the top court's directions, the Karnataka government has filed a petition asking for formulation of a larger constitutional bench to probe the ongoing dispute over Cauvery water. A bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and AM Khanwilkar are currently hearing the Cauvery case.
The SC had appointed a high-level central team led by Justice GS Jha to investigate the Cauvery case and find out the realities near the Cauvery basin regions. The committee had submitted its report to the apex court on Monday.
The report was submitted after it inspected Krishnaraja Sagar and the Kabini dams in Karnataka and the Mettur and Bhavani Sagar dams in Tamil Nadu. The team also held discussions with the officials from the public works departments and the farmers in the concerned areas.
According to reports, the farmers in the Tiruchirapalli and delta regions told the investigators that if Karnataka does not release the stipulated amount of water, the samba crops in the region would be damaged. The committee report also stated that at least 42 taluks out of the 48 near the Cauvery basin in Karnataka are drought-affected.
The nine-member central committee in its 40-pages report also said that after assessing the basin areas, it has found out that farmers in both the states are in distress and a crop compensation must be provided to them owing to the drought-affected areas and loss of crops. The team also said the "outdated and unscientific water application techniques" in both the states needs to be done away with to resolve the Cauvery dispute.
