Bengaluru: The special emergency meeting called by Chief Minister Siddharamaiah began at Vidhana Soudha this noon to discuss steps to be taken after Cauvery Water Regulation Committee’s (CWRC) direction that Karnataka release 5,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu for the next 15 days.

Dy. CM D.K. Shivakumar, Ministers of Cauvery basin region, MPs and former CMs are participating in the meeting. However, former CM B.S. Yediyurappa is not attending as he has left for New Delhi.

As a prelude for today’s meeting, the CM held a late-night meeting with lawyers yesterday where D.K. Shivakumar, Mysuru District Minister Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa, Mandya District Minister Chaluvarayaswamy, CM’s Legal Advisor and Virajpet MLA A.S. Ponnanna, Advocate General of Karnataka K. Shashi Kiran Shetty, Chief Secretary Vandita Sharma and the CM’s legal team were present. 

Meanwhile, Dy.CM D.K. Shivakumar, will fly to Jaipur to meet the Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in Jaipur.

After the CWRC recommendation came out, Shivakumar said that Karnataka is in no position to release Cauvery River water to Tamil Nadu, as it doesn’t have enough water storage, due to lack of adequate rainfall in the river basin region. He said, the matter is next going to come before the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA), most probably by tomorrow and Karnataka will vehemently put forward its stand before it.