From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Aug 23: Cornered by the Supreme Court’s decision to constitute a separate bench to hear Tamil Nadu’s plea for release of Cauvery waters, Karnataka is planning to take a delegation of all party leaders to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to mount pressure on the Centre to protect the interests of the farmers and people of the State.
This was the consensus of an all-party leaders’ meeting convened by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
The meeting attended by Deputy Chief Minister and Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar, Agriculture Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy and other ministers as well as leaders from opposition BJP and JD(S) resolved to fight unitedly to protect the interests of seven Kannadiga people.
Karnataka’s all party leaders delegation will also apprise Modi on the need to resolve the Cauvery-Mekedatu and Mahadayi issues to seek justice from the Centre, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said.
He also promised to ask the State’s legal team to effectively handle the case before the Supreme Court’s bench and seek justice in view of the paucity of water and distress situation.
The Chief Minister apprised the meeting held in Vidhana Soudha that the Congress government has taken all possible steps to protect the interests of farmers in Cuavery basin region in the State and assured that the suggestions by the leaders of all parties will be taken seriously by the government.
He said the Cauvery Monitoring Authority has held 22 meetings and its water control panel has held 84 meetings. The officials of Karnataka have effectively handled the case to put across the situation in the State. They have also apprised that the State and the basin areas have received less rains than normal and have also pointed out that people of Bengaluru and surrounding areas are dependent on Cuavery waters for drinking water purposes.
Karnataka has released barely 24 tmcft of water so far this year, which is one third of the quantity to be released in view of the shortage of water, he explained.
Deputy Chief Minister Shivakumar explained that the officials and legal team have effectively handled the situation in the Cauvery Monitoring Authority, when it decided that the State should release 15,000 cusecs of water a day for 10 days and pointed out that the demand is impossible to meet. The quantum was reduced to 10,000 cusecs for 10 days, when the Tamil Nadu side walked out.
As there is no chance of rains in the coming days, the State has argued that even the order for release of 10,000 cusecs cannot be implemented and have made it clear that the shortage of water must be decided by applying distress sharing formula, he explained.
“There is no question of any compromise on the question of protecting the interests of Karnataka with regard to its water and border issues,’’ he declared.
Former Chief Ministers Basavaraj Bommail B S Yediyurappa, H D Kumaraswamy, D V Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar and M Veerappa Moily, Delhi Representative of Karnataka T B Jayachandra, other ministers as well as Chief Secretary Vandita Sharma, Advocate General Shashikiran Shetty, Senior Advocates Mohan Katarki and other legal experts attended the meeting.