KRS water released to Tamil Nadu, alleges BJP; Karnataka min denies claim

MANDYA: Water was released from the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) reservoir to Tamil Nadu around midnight, BJP and Kannada outfits alleged on Saturday.

Kannada activist Vatal Nagaraj condemned the alleged release and said his organisation, Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha, will lay siege to the KRS dam in the next two days.

The release follows the Cauvery Water Management Authority's direction to Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu for 15 days, according to BJP Mandya unit spokesperson Manjunath.

"The water was released from KRS around midnight. The water level in the Cauvery river has increased following the release," Manjunath told the media.

This is happening despite the state government's earlier position that it would not release water to Tamil Nadu amid concerns over availability for farmers and drinking-water requirements, Manjunath alleged. He also shared the latest video of the water being released from the dam.

Echoing the allegation, Kannada activist Vatal Nagaraj claimed that the government has been secretly releasing water.

"There is nothing new about it. They (government) are releasing water compulsorily. They released it earlier, saying that it was released from Kabini. They very cleverly released it from the beginning," Nagaraj said.

He also alleged that there was an understanding between the Karnataka Chief Minister and his Tamil Nadu counterpart, C Vijay Joseph.

Nagaraj charged that whenever he sought details of the water inflow and outflow, the government refused to share it, saying it was highly technical.

"This is not right. There should now be a high-level investigation into this," Nagaraj said.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Minister N Chaluvarayaswamy dismissed allegations that the state government had released Cauvery water from the KRS to Tamil Nadu.

He said, "We are supposed to release water to Tamil Nadu from June itself. But we did not release water in June or July." He explained that when there was an order to release 3,500 cusecs, the actual outflow was higher.