Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said on Thursday that the state government will request the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal to reconsider its order directing Karnataka to release water from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu for 15 days.
Speaking to reporters, Shivakumar said: "We are facing shortage of water due to less rainfall. In spite of that, we had released water earlier (to Tamil Nadu). We are not able to make them happy. It is important for us to store the water for drinking purposes rather than for using it for agriculture. In this background, a memorandum will be submitted to the tribunal."
Reacting to former CM H.D. Kumaraswamy demanding an all-party meeting, Shivakumar said there was nothing wrong in it.
"The all party meeting should be conducted on river Mahadayi, river Krishna and other important inter-state matters," he said.
Former CM Basavaraj Bommai has written a letter to the Congress government demanding that water should not be released to Tamil Nadu.
(With inputs from IANS)
