Today in Politics: Amid Cauvery row flare-up, CM Stalin turns heat on Siddaramaiah govt, calls all-party meet

The Cauvery river water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka has flared up again. With the Congress-led Karnataka government’s stand on releasing a decreased quantum of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister and DMK supremo M K Stalin condemned the former, even as he announced a meeting of legislative leaders of all parties on Tuesday to decide on the next course of action in the inter-state river dispute.

As on Monday, the total storage in the four main dams of Karnataka was 75.586 TMC ft, while the water level in Tamil Nadu’s Mettur reservoir was a mere 13.808 TMC ft, Stalin said in a statement, adding that “Karnataka declining to release water according to the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee’s (CWRC) directive is a betrayal of Tamil Nadu’s farmers”.

On Sunday, Karnataka CM and Congress leader Siddaramaiah had said that his government was ready to release 8,000 cusecs of water from the Cauvery river every day to Tamil Nadu instead of the one TMC ft as directed by the CWRC.

Both the Congress and the DMK are key constituents of the Opposition INDIA alliance at the national level.

In context: Historically, Tamil Nadu used about 602 TMC of the total yield of the Cauvery river. As a result, only about 138 TMC was available for Karnataka until the turn of the 20th century. In 1924, Tamil Nadu built the Mettur dam, and the two states signed an agreement effective for 50 years. The pact allowed Tamil Nadu to expand its agricultural area by 11 lakh acres from the existing 16 lakh acres. Karnataka was authorised to increase its irrigation area from 3 lakh acres to 10 lakh acres.

In 1974, when the accord lapsed, Karnataka claimed that the agreement restricted its ability to develop farming activities along the Cauvery