Chennai, Sept 14: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has said the state had received only 17.33 tcm ft of water in the Mettur reservoir as against 107.64 tmc ft prescribed by the Cauvery water disputes tribunal for the period ending Aug 31. In a letter to the Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, she said that the state had received a 'huge deficit' of 90.31 tmc ft during the period and sought an emergent meeting of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) to decide on the issue.

In the letter, a copy of which was released to the press today, Jayalalithaa said she was given to understand that in the 19th meeting of the Cauvery monitoring committee of Sept 1, all the party states except Karnataka had agreed to the distress sharing formula.
The chairman of the Cauvery Monitoring Committee finally decided that he would recommend the distress sharing formula suggested in that meeting to the CRA for consideration and adoption, she said.

She said that the Mettur dam could not be opened for irrigation on June 12 due to poor storage, as a result, farmers lost their Kuruvai crop. They were living in fear of losing their samba crop. The farmers and landless agricultural labourers were undergoing untold misery and hardship, she said and sought a positive response from the Prime Minister on the issue.
Bureau Report