New Delhi: Efforts to hammer out a distress-sharing formula by the Cauvery Monitoring Committee failed on September 7 with Tamil Nadu ruling out acceptance of any quantity below the Supreme Court-directed 1.25 TMC ft of water daily.

No consensus could be reached on the issue, water resources secretary A K Goswamy said after a marathon meeting with chief secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry held in the wake of a ruling given by the Apex Court earlier this week.

Karnataka Chief Secretary A Ravindra said his state had given its own comments on the distress-sharing formula worked out by the Central Water Commission (CWC).

As it was not acceptable to the state, it had suggested as to how to modify the same, he said adding, however, Karnataka still agreed to release some water depending on its own inflow as it was facing very poor rainfall and storage.

Asked whether Tamil Nadu agreed to the CWC formula, Sugavaneswar said the state only took CWC formula and work on that formula.

He said though the state worked out the shortfall to be around 39.7 TMC ft, Karnataka disputed the figure.

Stating that both sides also tried to find some common ground, Goswami said, "despite the efforts, they could not reach a consensus because of their own constraints".

The Monitoring Committee meeting was held in the wake of the Apex Court order directing Karnataka to release 1.25 TMC ft of water to Tamil Nadu till the CRA met and decided on the distress-sharing formula because of poor monsoon in 2001.

Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna is camping here seeking a meeting with Vajpayee to impress on him the need for immediate convening of the CRA before the Prime Minister leaves on his foreign visit on September 9.

PTI