Any judgement will favour one and hurt the other. This is relatively new, say about 20/30 years. Ushering in Green Revolution has encouraged the states with water source proximity to resort to irrigated and cash crops like sugarcane in these years. It is not necessarily due to IT expansion in cities like Bangalore. Tail end delta region has to grow largely wetland rice crops, and if sufficient water is not provided the farmers will suffer. They cannot switch over to ‘dry’ or ‘less-water requiring crops. Perforce we have to change the cropping in the delta area. It is going to be more acute with the dwindling annual rainfall in both the catchment and delta areas. About two decades ago Gorbachev warned there will not be oil fight, but “water-war” globally. Desalination and drip irrigation are imperative. Media should write what was given as verdict in right spirit rather than tweaking and creating unrest to create Law and Order problem to report. Media need to show maturity. The reduced TMS for Tamil Nadu and so called increase for Karnataka is negligible, which eventually evaporate. Whether it evaporates here or there people should ignore and move in right perspective. The right approach to the problem is the nationalisation of rivers in India to solve irrigation problem amicably.
Anandambal Subbu
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
