'Rains will improve relations between Karnataka and TN’: Kumaraswamy

Chief Minister Kumaraswamy said he didn’t expect any political tensions with Tamil Nadu as enough water had been released.
'Rains will improve relations between Karnataka and TN’: Kumaraswamy
'Rains will improve relations between Karnataka and TN’: Kumaraswamy
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With Karnataka’s reservoirs filling to the brim, Chief Minister Kumaraswamy on Friday said he did not expect any political tensions between the state and Tamil Nadu. This as “enough water” had been released to Tamil Nadu, reported The New Indian Express. He said that the rains will improve relations between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

His statement comes a day after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami opened the sluice gates of the Mettur dam to release water for agriculture in the delta districts.

All four reservoirs in the Cauvery basin – Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS), Hemavathi, Harangi and Kabini are full owing to heavy rains in the catchment areas. Kumaraswamy also said that outflows from the KRS and Kabini reservoirs will help Karnataka release the required 131 tmcft to Tamil Nadu well before the September deadline fixed by the Cauvery Water Management Authority.

The neighbouring states have been locked in a century’s old dispute over the Cauvery water sharing. The dispute was settled by the Supreme Court in February, with the Centre forming the Cauvery Water Management Authority and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee in June, despite Karnataka’s objections.  

Kumaraswamy and his wife made offerings at the Kabini reservoir in Mysuru district in the presence of ministers such as DK Shivakumar GT Devegowda among others, reported Deccan Herald.

Stating that the heavy rains also favoured the JD(S)-Congress coalition government, Kumaraswamy said, “The nature is in favour of the coalition government as incessant rains have filled up almost all the reservoirs in the state including four in the Cauvery basin, by the grace of Goddess Chamundeshwari,” quoted TNIE.

The CM also appealed to farmers not to kill themselves. He stated that waiving farmer loans was not easy, as the former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had increased the salaries of government employees by 30%, taking a considerable amount out of the exchequer.

Kumaraswamy’s statement also comes at a time when there were four farmer suicides reported from Bidar district. He had earlier this month announced a conditional waiver, setting aside Rs 34,000 crore in the first Budget presented by the JD(S)-Congress coalition government at the Vidhana Soudha.

However, the waiver of loans came with some conditions attached: only loans up to Rs 2 lakh per farming family would be waived. Moreover, institutional credit loans taken from private moneylenders will not be waived. Kumaraswamy had also said that this was because large land holding farmers had taken loans as high as Rs 40 lakhs.

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