The Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Jayalalithaa and Jagadish Shettar, will meet in Bangalore on Thursday to discuss sharing the available waters in the reservoirs across the Cauvery river in the backdrop of a suggestion by the Supreme Court. Sources close to Mr. Shettar told The Hindu that Karnataka would approach the issue with a “positive mind to evolve at least a short-term solution that will last the current water year. Both States are in distress arising out of the failure of the southwest monsoon, and the talks between the two Chief Ministers to be held in a cordial atmosphere will yield results and a better understanding between the people of the two States”. ‘Save standing crop’ Sources in the Tamil Nadu government say that even as the State will continue to reiterate its position that Karnataka make good the shortfall of about 53 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft), it will also highlight the need for releasing a substantial amount of water immediately to save the standing long-term ‘Samba’ crop. The last round of discussions between Chief Ministers of the two States was in Chennai on January 5, 1997. That was the final and fifth round of negotiations between the then Chief Ministers M. Karunanidhi and J.H. Patel. Prior to the establishment of the Cauvery River Authority in August 1998, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee held discussion with Chief Ministers of all Basin States for two days to frame a scheme for implementing the 1991 interim order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. Yet another Chief Minister-level meeting was held on April 19, 1990, and Mr. Karunanidhi and Veerendra Patil led the talks. This was a couple of weeks before the Supreme Court directed the Union government to constitute the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. Ms. Jayalalithaa will be arriving by a special flight at the HAL airport, and from there she will drive to a private luxury hotel on the same road, which will be the venue for the meeting, which is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. Apart from her, the Tamil Nadu team will include Public Works Minister K.V. Ramalingam, Chief Secretary Debendranath Sarangi, Public Works Secretary M. Saikumar and Cauvery Technical Cell Chairman R. Subramanian. On Wednesday, she discussed the matter with Mr. Sarangi, Dr. Saikumar, Advocate-General A. Navaneethakrishnan and other legal experts. The Karnataka Chief Minister will be assisted by Minister for Water Resources Basavaraj Bommai, Chief Secretary S.V. Ranganath, Principal Secretary (Irrigation) D. Sathyamurthy and three other irrigation experts.