Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Karnataka government to immediately release 2.44 TMC water for the standing Samba paddy crop in Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu had sought 9 TMC of water for its standing crops spread over six lakh hectares of land. It said that one-third of the crops spread over nine lakh hectares of land had perished due to drought, and the remaining crop over six lakh hectares of land needs to be irrigated twice to save it.
However, Karnataka contended that 40 percent of standing crops had already been harvested, and the remaining sixty percent was about to be harvested. Thus, Tamil Nadu needs no water for irrigating standing crops.
Following the dispute, the SC had on Monday directed the Central Water Commission to send a three-member expert team to ascertain the total area under standing crop in Tamil Nadu. The committee submitted its report yesterday.
The court had during the last hearing said, irrespective of the expert committee report; Tamil Nadu will release two TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of water from Mettur reservoir which in turn will be replenished by Karnataka from its Cauvery water.
The Supreme Court had also slammed the Centre for not notifying the order given by the Cauvery Water Tribunal five years ago. It directed the Centre to notify the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal award by February 20.
