Farmers moved to Supreme Court Challenging the Release of Water

Farmers of Karnataka moved to the Supreme Court on 25 September 2012 challenging the direction given to the state by the Union Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh who is the head of Cauvery River Authority (CRA) to release 9000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu from September 20- October 15.

The reason was drastically failure of monsoon in the last year which has affected the agriculture of Karnataka severely.

The farmers had given a writ petition mentioning that due to failure of monsoon to the extent of 40 percent, drought had severely affected almost half of the agricultural activities in the Cauvery basin of Karnataka.

The Petitioner mentioned that the demand of Tamil Nadu seeking water from Karnataka was uncalled for because Farmers in Tamil Nadu is going to get enough water during the North-East monsoon beginning in October and ending in December.

They had also mentioned that the crops can be grown with the help of rain received during the North-East monsoon. As also the storage in Mettur Dam was 45 tmcft, Tamil Nadu farmers are not in need of water as it is going to be sufficient for them till November.