BY IOL South Asia Correspondent

NEW DELHI, October 28 (IslamOnline) - Barely hours before the Supreme Court of India was to issue a verdict on a contempt of court petition against its chief minister and some other officials, the southern state of Karnataka began releasing water to the neighboring Tamil Nadu Monday, October 28.

Karnataka government also produced an affidavit offering an "unconditional apology" to the Supreme Court for violating its previous order to release Cauvery River waters to the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. Last week, the court had taken a strong view of Karnataka leaders playing politics.

Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna told the court in his affidavit that his government "erred" by not implementing its order for release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. Karnataka told the court that it has started releasing 10,000 cusecs of water daily from today.

The Supreme Court has posted the contempt case for hearing on November 1 when it will consider acceptance of the apology as well as steps taken by Karnataka to implement the court's order.

The court said "we are only interested in seeing implementation of the court's order. It gives us no pleasure to punish anybody. What caused us great anguish is that the state of Karnataka, foremost in development, showed scant respect to the Supreme Court's order. It is disgraceful".

Observers said the chief minister may be sent to jail for a few days for not honoring the court order. In an earlier incident, Kalyan Singh, Uttar Pradesh chief minister at the time of Babri Mosque demolition in December 1992 was sent to jail for one day for reneging on his commitment to the Supreme Court that he will safeguard the mosque.

After a show of defiance, Chief Minister Krishna at a late night cabinet meeting yesterday decided to resume the supply of 9,000 cusecs of water. The Karnataka government said water began to be released from Krishnasagar reservoir at 2 in the morning today. The government said water would also begin to be released from Kabine reservoir soon.

Tamil Nadu, situated downstream, has to depend on Cauvery River water for agriculture. Karnataka, situated upstream, controls the flow of the water. Last month tension grew between the two states as Karnataka refused to release water to Tamil Nadu.

Karnataka farmers, fearing water scarcity, put pressure on their government not to oblige. The Supreme Court, which had censured the Karnataka government for non-compliance of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) orders to release water, is to deliver its verdict on the two contempt of court petitions filed by Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha and Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna Monday.

The film industry in Tamil Nadu is jubilant about the developments as many of them were involved in the campaign to force Karnataka to release water. Karnataka cinema theatres had stopped showing Tamil films. This problem too seems on way to solution.

On the other hand, farmers in Karnataka said they would start a protest movement if the water supply was not stopped forthwith. Earlier this month, a farmer had committed suicide protesting against the release of water to Tamil Nadu.