Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: The Tamil Nadu government decided on Tuesday to file a contempt of court petition in the Supreme Court against Karnataka government for stopping the supply of Cauvery river waters in violation of court orders.
The decision was taken at a meeting held to review the situation, chaired by Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa here Tuesday.
The meeting was also attended by Minister for Public Works KV Ramalingam and senior officials, according to a statement issued by the government.
The participants at the meeting said that the Karnataka government`s unilateral decision to stop release of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu will affect the federalistic set-up of the country and be in contempt of the apex court`s directive.
It was also decided to file a contempt of court petition against the Karnataka government in the apex court so Tamil Nadu gets its share of Cauvery waters.
The Supreme Court Sep 29 ordered the Karnataka government to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery waters as per the decision Cauvery River Authority (CRA), presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Earlier on Sep 19, the CRA ordered Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu from Sep 20 onwards till Oct 15.
Obeying the court`s direction, the Karnataka government started releasing water to Tamil Nadu Sep 29 on, but on Monday night Karnataka stopped the supply of water.
Hours before the five crest gates of Krishanaraja Sagar (KRS) reservoir in Mandya, about 80 km from Bangalore, through which Cauvery water was being released to Tamil Nadu were shut, Karnataka had informed the Supreme Court that it was in no position to continue the water flow.
Hundreds of farmers gathered at the reservoir to try to prevent water release raised slogans welcoming the stoppage when Janata Dal-Secular legislator CS Puttaraju, who had led them, confirmed that water flow had stopped.
Meanwhile, Karnataka has decided to file a review petition today before the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made it clear that only the authority can revisit the decision about the state releasing water to Tamil Nadu.
Congress` ministers from Karnataka SM Krishna, Mallikarjun Kharge and KH Muniyappa and 16 BJP MPs from the state, led by M Venkaiah Naidu, met Dr Singh separately on Monday seeking a review of the CRA decision.
With agency inputs
