Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said on Thursday, August 17, that the state government will request the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal to reconsider its order directing Karnataka to release water from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu for 15 days. The Karnataka government has agreed to release 10 TMC of water while Tamil Nadu has demanded 27 TMC.
Speaking to reporters, Shivakumar said, "We are facing shortage of water due to less rainfall. In spite of that, we had released water earlier [to Tamil Nadu]. We are not able to make them happy. It is important for us to store the water for drinking purposes rather than for using it for agriculture. In this background, a memorandum will be submitted to the tribunal."
Reacting to former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy demanding an all-party meeting, Shivakumar said there was nothing wrong in it. "The all party meeting should be conducted on river Mahadayi, river Krishna and other important inter-state matters," he said.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has written a letter to the Congress government demanding that water should not be released to Tamil Nadu. He said that the Congress was trying to please its ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) by releasing water from Cauvery. In his letter, Bommai further mentioned that Karnataka needs to preserve its interests first and withhold water from Tamil Nadu because there has been a monsoon deficit in the state.