The row over the sharing of Cauvery waters between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has reached a flash point, with a constitutional crisis unfolding in the state becoming a real possibility.
The state government on Monday evening claimed to have stopped the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, after the Supreme Court deferred the hearing of the water dispute till the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) takes a call on Karnataka's plea to review its decision of releasing 9,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu every day till Oct 15.
Chief minister Jagadish Shettar, who was in a combative mood, declared that the water flow to Tamil Nadu would be stopped. "We are committed to protect the interest of our farmers and meet the drinking water needs of Bangalore," said Shettar, expressing his readiness to face any legal eventuality.
According to reports, water release to Tamil Nadu is said to have been stopped later in the evening. Vijay Kumar, executive engineer of the KRS dam in Mandya district, in a statement said the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu had been stopped on the instructions of the state government.
As a constitutional crisis looms large, Shettar expressed hope that the CRA, headed by Prime minister Manmohan Singh, would meet immediately to modify its earlier order. The CRA is expected to meet on Oct 12.
Earlier in the day, the SC took a serious note of the troubled situation in both the states over the water crisis, saying "agitations do not serve any purpose". “All these agitations don’t serve any purpose. Sometimes they may spoil a good case,” a bench of Justices DK Jain and Madan B Lokur remarked.
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Analysts feel the court was hinting at the ongoing agitation in Karnataka.
Earlier, Karnataka’s counsel Fali S Nariman urged the court to defer the hearing till Oct 28. Nariman also said that Karnataka would not be able to "release anything more". "It is physically impossible to release. There is already a surplus of 13,000 cusecs," he added.
Counsel also had reservation on the likelihood of the CRA taking any decision on Karnataka’s review petition keeping in view that the top court had passed an injunction order on Sept 28.
In order to make the CRA comfortable in disposing of the review petition, the top court passed a brief order saying, "We clarify that our Sept 28, 2012 order shall not in any way be an impediment in the chairperson (prime minister) taking a decision on the review petition before it (CRA)."
In order to make the CRA comfortable in disposing of the review petition, the top court passed a brief order saying, "We clarify that our Sept 28, 2012 order shall not in any way be an impediment in the chairperson (prime minister) taking a decision on the review petition before it (CRA)."
Edited By Cen Fox Post Team
