Karnataka has started releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu on the request of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, state Chief Minister N Dharam Singh said on Friday.

Water was flowing from Kabini reservoir and not from Krishnaraja Sagar, Hemavathy and Harangi, Singh told reporters in Bangalore.

Karnataka came under intense pressure from Tamil Nadu, seeking release of water to help its farmers to commence agricultural operations during the coming 'Kuruvai' season.

While a political delegation led by DMK leader Durai Murugan called on Singh, an official delegation headed by Tamil Nadu PWD Minister O Pannerselvam immediately followed it, to mount pressure on the state for water release.

A delegation of Karnataka MPs, under the stewardship of Union Minister of State for Programme Implementation Oscar Fernandes, had also met prime minister to explain Karnataka's position, after an all party Tamil Nadu delegation called on Manmohan Singh, seeking his intervention to resolve the water
release row.

Karnataka, which had maintained a consistent stand earlier that it was not in a position to release water to Tamil Nadu under the prevailing situation as its farmers faced severe distress following drought for three consecutive years, decided to honour the prime minister's request after copious rains in Kodagu region boosted water inflows into Kabini reservoir.

Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party leader in the state assembly B S Yediyurappa and Kannada Chaluvali leader Vatal Nagaraj flayed the government's decision to release water without taking the opposition into confidence.

Yediyurappa charged that the government, which had declared earlier that it will not release water, had now reneged on its assurance.