Cauvery Water Row: DMK and AIADMK Both Press TVK Government Over Shortfall From Karnataka

Tamil Nadu is facing a widening shortfall in Cauvery water this year, having received only a fraction of the roughly 28.3 tmc ft due to it for the June-July period under the water-sharing arrangement upheld by the Supreme Court, leaving delta farmers anxious about irrigation for the Kuruvai and Samba crops. The Cauvery Water Management Authority held its 53rd meeting in Delhi on July 22 to review the shortfall.

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami said Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's government should issue a firm political warning to the Congress-led Karnataka government over the delay, and asked whether Vijay was prepared to press the Centre on the issue. He dismissed as a "blatant lie" a Karnataka minister's comment on the release process, and said agricultural labourers as well as farmers were being hit by the delay.

DMK president M.K. Stalin separately said on July 24 that the state government had been silent on the Cauvery issue and asked why Chief Minister Vijay had not personally met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for water release and to submit the Assembly's resolution against the Mekedatu dam project. Stalin called for immediate relief measures for affected delta farmers.

Karnataka Water Resources Minister Ramalinga Reddy said he had never stated that Karnataka would refuse to release Cauvery water, and maintained that the release schedule was a matter for the Cauvery Water Management Authority to decide.

The criticism from both principal opposition parties, coming from different political flanks, adds pressure on the TVK government as it heads into the delta cultivation season with the water-sharing dispute still unresolved.