Bangalore: Shettar to Present State Budget on Feb 8

From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Jan 19: Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar will present the State Budget on February 8. A decision to this effect was taken by State Cabinet, which met on Saturday afternoon.

The Cabinet also decided to hold the legislature session from February 4 to 13. Governor H R Bhardwaj will address the joint session of the legislature in Bangalore on February 4.

Senior advocate S Doreraju has been appointed as the new State Public Prosecutor for a period of two years, according to a Government order issued here on Saturday.

Doreraju replaced H S Chandramouli, who had resigned from the post recently.

In consultation with the Advocate General of the State, Mr Doreraju has been appointed as the State Public Prosecutor, said the order.

The Karnataka Cabinet on Saturday urged the Centre not to notify the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal final award till the Supreme Court disposes civil petitions challenging the order.

The Cabinet meeting presided by Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar has decided to urge the Union Government not to notify the final order following challenge of the Tribunal’s order in the Supreme Court by riparian states and also filing applications before the tribunal, seeking classificatory orders.

Kumar said Shettar has written two letters last month to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging that the tribunal verdict not be notified without consulting the state.

Addressing presspersons on the Cabinet decisions, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs S Suresh Kumar said a copy of the Cabinet decision would be forwarded to the Central Government.

Karnataka’s Minister for Water Resources Basavaraj Bommai provided a detailed account in the Cabinet meeting about the Supreme Court’s directive to the Centre to consider notifying the tribunal order by January 31.

The Central Water Commission Secretary had asked the States’ Chief Secretary S V Ranganath about the state’s stand on notifying the tribunal order at the recent Cauvery Monitoring Committee meeting held in Delhi, to which the latter had replied he could not say anything on it as the issue was not in the agenda and that he would have to discuss with the government, Kumar said.

Kumar said the meeting was informed about the Union Government’s Solicitor General’s view that it was not fair to notify the order since applications are pending before the Supreme Court and also classificatory applications before the Tribunal as per the opinion tendered by the Union Law Ministry.