The Karnataka government on Monday told the Supreme Court that it cannot release more water from the Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu until December. The apex court had directed Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of water for another seven days, ending Tuesday. However, Karnataka had refused to do so.
The government told the Supreme Court on Monday that any water to the neighbouring state can only be released in December since major cities in the state are on the brink of running out of drinking water.
The Karnataka legislature on Friday took a unanimous resolution to defer releasing water to Tamil Nadu as the reservoirs were running dry. The legislature had decided that water from the Cauvery basic will be used for drinking water for Bengaluru and other towns in the state.
The 42,000 cusecs remaining water should be treated as "arrears" and will be released by the end of December, Karnataka told the Supreme Court, while urging it to amend its previous order.
"This is an unimplementable order," Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said after the September 20 order by the apex court.
The Cauvery Supervisory Committee had said that Karnataka should release 3,000 cusecs of water per day from September 21 to 27, but the court directed that 6,000 cusecs be released per day. According to the committee order, only 30,000 cusecs of water would have to be released in total, but the court directive increased the amount by 12,000 cusecs.
