Karnataka to move SC challenging Cauvery panel's direction to release water to TN: CM Siddaramaiah
Chamarajanagar (PTI): The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee's direction to Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu will be challenged before the Supreme Court, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Wednesday.
The panel had directed Karnataka to release water at the rate of 3,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs) to the neighbouring state from September 28 to October 15.
Siddaramaiah said he had spoken to the state's legal team, which opined that it should be challenged in the apex court.
"We are challenging the order of the Regulation Committee before the Supreme Court. We don't have water to give," the chief minister told reporters at Male Mahadeshwara Hills in this district.
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had on Tuesday expressed satisfaction over the CWRC rejecting the request of Tamil Nadu, which wanted Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs. The committee recommended Karnataka to release 3,000 cusecs of water to the neighbouring state.
Karnataka submitted before CWRC at its meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday the shortfall in cumulative inflows to its four reservoirs in the Cauvery basin up to September 25, which hold just 53.04 per cent of their capacity.
According to Karnataka officials, due to the failure of the south-west monsoon (from June to September) this year, there is no sufficient storage in the four reservoirs and the State is facing such a grave situation that it is finding it extremely difficult even to cater to the drinking water requirements, let alone supplying for irrigation.
The rainfall received in Karnataka this year in August and September is the lowest in the last 123 years, they said.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
