Cauvery meet: Jaya skips, keeps Krishna waiting

According to sources, the Centre is now in no hurry to convene the CRA meeting. The meeting can be held after CRA’s next hearing, slated for December 5. The apex court in its last hearing had expressed hope that CRA would finally resolve the issue amicably.

But, now that the meeting was postponed, the Centre may accordingly inform the Court that they tried their best to convene the meeting but for the absence of the two Chief Ministers.

Karnataka CM S. M. Krishna said he was looking forward to the meeting and was hoping that an ‘‘amicable settlement’’ would be reached. In reply to a query whether he wanted the rules to be changed for the convening of the CRA, since earlier too Jayalalithaa had failed to come, Krishna said he had no views to offer.

Asked if he still had faith in CRA, he replied in the affirmative saying: ‘‘It is a new experience. It is the only river authority working in the country.’’

Krishna also met the PM earlier in the day. The meeting was also scheduled with Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, who failed to attend the meeting. Krishna said though Karnataka has been facing drought earlier, this year was the worst in past 11 years and should therefore be considered as the bottomline of their argument.

He said Karnataka needed water for harvesting the crop till mid-January. From then onwards, they would be requiring water for the standing sugarcane crop.

Meanwhile, sources in AIADMK were at pains to emphasise that even though Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa was keen to attend the meeting she was forced to cancel it at the last-minute due to her ‘‘indisposition’’.

However, this was not the case with Kerala CM who had kept himself away due to his other ‘‘preoccupation’’. There is a difference between indisposition and preoccupation, they stressed.

The meeting of the CRA would have been a stormy-one if it would have taken place. Both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were ready to put forth their views before Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is also the Chairman of the CRA.

Karnataka was looking forward to get 9,000 cusecs, pronounced earlier by the CRA and valid till October 31, to be revised as per the distress sharing formula. Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, was of the opinion that after ‘‘having agreed to this figure, Karnataka could not go back and seek revision of the decision of the CRA’’.

Sources in the Central Water Commission said that Tamil Nadu was asking for a bare minimum of 80 tmc ft water from Karnataka, which according to them was absolutely essential to sustain the samba crop. Having lost kuruvai crop to an extent of 3.75 lakh hectares, the samba crop of 9 lakh hectares has to be saved during the period upto February 28, 2002.

At the last Cauvery Monitoring Committee meeting, Tamil Nadu had quoted the figure of 55.91 tmc ft as shortfall on November 20, though it said as per the normal year, the shortfall was 102.84 tmc ft. Tamil Nadu had insisted the release of at least 23.18 tmcft upto October 31 from Karnataka. The balance quantity of water to the tune of 32.73tmc (55.91- 23.18) due to Tamil Nadu as per the distress formula should be given at the rate of 25 tmcft in January 2003 and 8 tmcft in the first fortnight of February 2003.

Karnataka, on the other hand, has contested all the figures of Tamil Nadu holding the view that the shortfall is only 6 tmc ft. It is of the view that the present storage at Mettur is 31 tmc ft, which coupled with expected inflows from the intermediate and lower catchment North-East rainfall should be sufficient to manage samba rice crop of about 12 lakh acres.