New Delhi: A crucial meeting of the Cauvery River Monitoring Committee (CRMC) has been convened on September 7 to work out a distress-sharing formula on Cauvery waters in the wake of Supreme Court directing Karnataka to release 1.25 tmcft of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu every day.

Union Water Resources Ministry sources said that notices have been sent to the riparian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry for the meeting.

The meeting assumes significance as the Apex Court had said Karnataka would release water to Tamil Nadu till final decision was taken by the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and "shall stand automatically superseded by the decision taken by CRA".

Apparently keeping in mind the Prime Minister's US trip next week, Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna is likely to arrive on September 6 and take a state MPs delegation to Prime Minister to impress upon him the need for convening an immediate CRA meeting to decide on the issue.

The last CRA meeting on August 27, which witnessed a walkout by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa protesting against the "delay" in releasing water to Tamil Nadu, had decided that the CRMC would meet within a fortnight to work out a distress- sharing formula and the CRA in the third week of this month to evolve an agreed formula.

PTI