From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Dec 6: Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar will be leading a delegation of all members of parliament from the Cauvery basin in the State to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat on Friday to apprise them about the precarious position in the State following the Supreme Court’s directive for release of 10,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu daily till December 9.
The Supreme Court had directed Karnataka to release 10,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu at Biligondlu till December 9 and had asked the Cauvery River Water Authority to meet on Decemeber 7 or 8 to decide the requirements of water for both the states and take appropriate decision on fixing the quantum.
The delegation comprising State’s Water Resources Minister Basavaraja Bommai, will also have the State’s four Union Ministers – M Veerappa Moily, Mallikharjuna Kharge, K Rehman Khan and K H Muniyappa.
The Chief Minister made the announcement in the ongoing State Assembly session in Belgaum, which commenced its winter session on Wednesday.
Shettar said the delegation will explain the State’s difficulties to the Prime Minister, who is also the Chairman of the Cauvery River Water Authority, and Harish Rawat, the chairman of the Cauvery Monitoring Committee. The State will put forth its need to conserve the available water for meeting the drinking water requirements of the people of Bangalore, Mandya, Mysore and other towns dependant on the Cauvery waters and also to ensure that the standing crops of the farmers in the State’s basin areas were protected. As many as 49 taluks in the Cauvery basin areas were reeling under drought situation, he said.
The Cauvery water sharing issue disrupted the Belgaum legislature session on the second day itself and the State Government was forced to hold parleys with the floor leaders of all parties in both houses right from morning.
Consequently, the session could not be held for the whole morning. When the assembly finally met in the afternoon, the opposition Congress and JD(S) members trooped into the well of the house to stage a dharna urging the Government to declare its inability to release the water due to the poor storage position in the State’s reservoirs which resulted in the Speaker K G Bopaiah adjourning the house.
When the House met later, the Chief Minister made a suo motu statement explaining the State’s Government’s stand on the apex court’s directive to the State for releasing 10,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to neighbouring Tamil Nadu till December 9, which could not be implemented due to the insufficient storage in the State’s reservoirs due to monsoon failure.
Shettar explained that Karnataka cannot expect any more inflows and had to manage till the next monsoon and, therefore, was not in a position to heed Tamil Nadu’s request for releasing 30 tmcft of water. In any case, monsoon in the neighbouring State is just starting and can expect rainfall.
The Chief Minister said the Government would hold consultations with experts and legal counsel to finalise its stand before the Cauvery Monitoring Committee and later take up the issue in the Supreme Court. He, however, declined to accept the opposition’s suggestion for declaring that the State would not follow the Supreme Court’s December 5 directive for releasing Cauvery water.
Not satisfied with the Chief Minister’s reply, which was termed as vague by Congress opposition leader Siddaramaiah, the entire opposition members moved into the well of the house to stage a dharna forcing the Speaker to adjourn the house till Friday.
Apart from Siddaramaiah and H D Revanna of JD(S), T B Jayachandra, D K Shiva Kumar, H C Mahadevappa, N L Narendra Babu (all Congress), C S Puttaraju, Ramesh Bandisiddegowda, K M Shivalinge Gowda (all JD-S), B N Vijaya Kumar (BJP) and P M Narendraswamy (Indpendent) participated in the debate urging the State Government not harm the interests of the State and its farmers by releasing water to Tamil Nadu.