Puducherry moves Supreme Court to get water from Cauvery

Ahead of the crucial hearing of Tamil Nadu’s petition in Supreme Court on September 2 for release of 50.52 tmcft of water, Puducherry government on Tuesday moved an application seeking release of 57 tmcft of water, including 7 tmcft for the Union territory.

The application filed through counsel V.G. Pragasam said that unless urgent supply of water is provided, the agriculturists of Karaikal region of Puducherry will suffer untold loss as well as misery. It submitted that during the agricultural year, the Karaikal region of Puducherry did not receive any water from the state of Tamil Nadu since they could not provide it.

The applicant said, under the final orders of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, the Union territory has been allotted 7 tmcft of water to enable them to cultivate 43,000 acres of land in the Karaikal region. This water was not released by Tamil Nadu since their water level in Mettur Dam is too low to release any water to Karaikal region. Generally, water allotted to Puducherry is initially received from Karnataka by Tamil Nadu in their Mettur Dam as the UT does not have a dam to reserve the water as and when it comes.

It said during the current year 2015-2016, Karnataka miserably failed to ensure the stipulated release of water to the state of Tamil Nadu and the UT.