Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar held a meeting with Union Ministers Prahlad Joshi, Shobha Karandlaje, Bhagwanth Khuba, Narayanswamy and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and Members of Parliament from Karnataka in New Delhi today, to brief them about the Cauvery river water dispute with Tamil Nadu. The legal team representing Karnataka in the Supreme Court was also present.

The Chief Minister called upon the lawmakers from Karnataka across party lines to safeguard the interest of the State. He pointed out that Karnataka is not against releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, but the problem is that there is not enough water to release. He explained that the State requires 33 TMC of water for drinking purposes, 70 TMC for standing crops, and three TMC for industries, which together comes to 106 TMC. But, he said, the State reservoirs have only 53 TMC water storage. 

The Supreme Court had asked the state to release 108.5 TMC Cauvery water, but as of date, only 39.8 TMC is being released. He pointed out that Tamil Nadu is likely to have rains again, and it has surplus groundwater also. The Chief Minister sought Central Government intervention to redress the grievances of Karnataka.

Earlier yesterday, a delegation of Tamil Nadu MPs and MLAs led by State Water Resources Minister Durai Murgan met with Union Water Resources Minister Gajendra Shekhawat in an effort to break the impasse. Tamil Nadu has alleged that Karnataka was not complying with the order of the Cauvery Water Management Authority which had asked Karnataka to release 5000 cusecs of Cauvery Water till September 26.