BENGALURU: Karnataka will submit its latest reservoir levels and inflows in the Cauvery basin to the Supreme Court and to the supervisory committee on Monday in the hope that there will be a reduction of the amount of water that the state has been directed to release to Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu has also filed its counter.Karnataka has seen a largely non-violent bandh but serious disruption of interstate traffic and blockades on the busy Bengaluru-Mysuru highway since September 6, the day after the apex court directed Karnataka to release water at the rate of 15,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu for 10 days. Water resources officials said this would amount to over 13 thousand million cubic feet (TMCFT) at a time when the combined storage of the four Cauvery basin reservoirs was 46.7 TMCFT.Chief minister Siddaramaiah announced that as constitutional head of state, he had no option but to comply and state government officials told ET that about 9 TMCFT has flown to Tamil Nadu since, despite serious protests by farmers at all the dams.The state police protected all the dams in full force and also saved some farmers who jumped into the river and one who consumed poison in protest. The state, in its petition, has appealed that the standing crop over nearly 3 lakh hectares in Karnataka had to be protected. "We have requested the supervisory committee to take into account the actual inflows in our reservoirs and not the overall rainfall in the state, as demanded by Tamil Nadu," a senior water resources official told ET.

Source: Economic Times September 11, 2016 15:22 UTC