Bengaluru: The State Cabinet on Saturday decided to convene the special session of legislature – Assembly and Council on Monday, October 3 to take a decision on whether or not release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
Speaking with media persons, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the Supreme Court on Friday had directed the state to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day for six days to Tamil Nadu, but the state legislature had passed a resolution on September 23 directing the state not to use Cauvery water in four reservoirs for any other purpose other than drinking purpose. “Apart from the Supreme Court direction, there was a demand from the political leaders and farmers to release Cauvery water to save the standing crops in Cauvery basin. Since the legislature had passed a resolution directing the state to use the Cauvery water for drinking purpose only, we have decided to convene the special session of the legislature to discuss on this issue,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said.
The chief minister said the Supreme Court had directed the Centre to constitute Cauvery Management Board by October 4 and the Attorney General had conveyed the Supreme Court the Cauvery Management Board would be constituted by Tuesday. “Our contention in the special leave petition (SLP) that is scheduled for hearing in the Supreme Court on October 18 is against the constitution of Cauvery Management Board. The SLP is expected to hear by a three-member bench but the two-member bench on Friday had issued the direction to the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Management Board. We consider this judgement as defective. So, we are filing a review petition on Monday against the Supreme Court’s directive to constitute the Cauvery Management Board,” the chief minister said.
When asked about the Supreme Court’s order to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, the chief minister said the special session of the legislature would take a decision on this issue. “The Supreme Court had directed the state on September 7, 12 and 20. We have not defied the Supreme Court order. We have not committed anything wrong since we have not willfully defied the Supreme Court order,” the chief minister said.
