The Cauvery dispute seems set to escalate after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah expressed the state’s inability to share water with the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu, citing insufficient reserves in the river’s basin dams.

Speaking to reporters in Kalaburagi on Sunday, September 17 the CM said,  “We do not have water to release. An appeal petition is being filed with the Supreme Court and the court has questioned the state on non-compliance of orders of the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA).”

The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) in its latest recommendation had previously directed the Karnataka state government to release 5,000 cusecs of water for 25 days from September 13 onwards. In response to this, the Siddaramaiah government had held an emergency all-party meeting on the same date last week. 

On Sunday the Karnataka CM also said, “If at all we want to release the water, our requirement is 106 tmc. We have only 53 tmc of water availability. For drinking water purposes 30 tmc is required, to save standing crops 70 tmc and for industries 3 tmc water is needed. There is no water with us to release.” He further added that, “In a normal year 177.25 tmc of water is released. Until now only 37.7 tmc of water has been released. We were supposed to release 99 tmc of water, which we have not released.” 

Meanwhile, an all-party delegation from Tamil Nadu is set to meet Union Jal Sakthi Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Monday, September 18 and present him with a memorandum. In a statement, Chief Minister MK Stalin released a statement outlining the demands of the memorandum on September 16. The memorandum urges the Union Minister to direct CWMA to order the release of 12,500 tmc of water.

The delegation reportedly includes Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan and TR Baalu from the DMK, MP and VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan, N Chandrasekaran and Thambi Durai from the AIADMK, PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss, MDMK general secretary Vaiko, GK Vasan from the TMC, AKP Chinraj from the KMDK and Navas Kani from IUML. 

Inputs IANS