Cauvery committee cancels trip to TN

CHENNAI: Following a protest by the Tamil Nadu government, the Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) on Wednesday cancelled its proposed trip to Mettur reservoir, official sources said.
The committee, headed by the Union water resources secretary A K Goswami, on Tuesday wrote a letter to the Tamil Nadu chief secretary Sugavaneshvar, stating its intention to visit the Stanley reservoir at Mettur.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is also the Cauvery River Authority chairman, had directed the committee to inspect the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu dams to ascertain the factual position of water storage and submit a report to him within three days.
The committee had visited the K R Sagar dam on Tuesday and had proposed to visit Mettur and Kabini dams on Wednesday. Tamil Nadu had opposed the CMC’s visit to Mettur on the plea that it would tantamount to contempt of court as the Supreme Court was seized of the matter.
Following Tamil Nadu’s opposition, the team cancelled its trip to Mettur.