Deve Gowda moots hotline between CMs for sharing Cauvery water

Speaking to reporters during his visit to a temple at Hosur in Dharmapuri district, Gowda said, “There should be uninterrupted talks between two states for the welfare of farmers in both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. This was even suggested by actor Kamal Haasan during his meeting with Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.”

Explaining that Karnataka is an upper riparian state, the former Prime Minister said the water storage level in dams should be taken into account for every ten days before taking a joint stand on releasing water to Tamil Nadu.

“The Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers should hold regular meetings before arriving at a decision on sharing the water. The Cauvery water sharing dispute is a century old issue. In this backdrop, it is not proper to see who is bigger as Tamil Nadu farmers too are our brethren,” he said suggesting that Tamil Nadu farmers should raise crops considering the availability of water in the Karnataka dams.

Stating that Tamil Nadu has got double its share of water from Cauvery this month, following heavy rains in Karnataka, Gowda said their state is open to anyone visiting Kabini, Harangi and KRS reservoirs to know the water storage levels. “However no one can stop the discharge of water from these dams,” he said.

As part of his visit, Gowda also visited Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development P Balakrishna Reddy at his residence in Hosur.

A day after heavy discharge, water outflow from Kabini reservoir in Karnataka dropped considerably on Monday.

At Biligundulu, the entry point of Cauvery into Tamil Nadu, the inflow, which stood at 30,000 cusecs on Sunday evening, has dropped to about 23,000 cusecs on Monday morning and further to 18,000 cusecs in the evening. The drop in inflow levels has been attributed to rains slowing down in Karnataka, said a PWD official.

Water from Kabini dam in Karnataka reached Mettur reservoir on Sunday morning, three days after the release on Thursday. Meanwhile water storage level in Mettur dam surged by five feet, from 40 feet on Sunday to 45.05 feet on Monday morning. The dam’s full storage level is 120 feet.

“The inflow into the dam, which stood at 616 cusecs at 8 am on Sunday increased to 19,087 cusecs at 4 pm and further to 32,421 cusecs on Monday morning. As the inflow has been high, the dam was filling fast and the storage level surged by five feet within a day,” added the official.

About 500 cusecs of water are released from the dam to serve the drinking water needs of people.

For the second day coracle rides were suspended in Hogenakkal falls and other villages of Dharmapuri.