To press for release of water to save the standing samba crop in the State
A delegation of Ministers from the Cauvery delta districts of Tamil Nadu, led by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, is planning to meet Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to seek the release of Cauvery water so that the standing samba crop could be saved.
The decision was taken at a meeting of Ministers chaired by Mr. Palaniswami at Fort St. George here. An appointment has been sought with Mr. Siddaramaiah to fix a convenient date for the meeting.
According to an official release, the decision by the delegation to meet the Karnataka Chief Minister in-person was taken considering the poor inflow into the Mettur dam, which had left the authorities unable to provide adequate quantity of water for irrigation to farmers in the Cauvery delta districts.
Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and Ministers Dindigul C. Sreenivasan, K.A. Sengottaiyan, P. Thangamani, S.P. Velumani, D. Jayakumar, R. Kamaraj, R. Doraikkannu and O.S. Manian participated in the meeting. Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, Finance Secretary K. Shanmugam and other senior officials were also present.
The two neighbouring States are involved in a litigation over the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, which is pending with the Supreme Court.
The Cauvery delta region comprises Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur and parts of Karur, Ariyalur, Pudukkottai, Cuddalore and Tiruchi districts. Agriculture in the State depends, in large part, on irrigation through the Cauvery system.
Precedents
The last time there was a meeting between the Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka was in September 2016, in the presence of Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti.
In 2012, the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, called on her Karnataka counterpart Jagadish Shettar in Bengaluru to discuss the water sharing dispute. A senior official said the meeting of the CMs was arranged following a suggestion made by the Supreme Court in this regard. Former Chief Ministers M. Karunanidhi and M.G. Ramachandran had also called on their counterparts in Karnataka over the issue in the past, he added.