UNI

Bangalore, Feb 23: The ruling JD(S)-BJP coalition in Karnataka will hold an all-party meeting here on Friday, February 24 to decide on the State's unanimous stand with regard to the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.

This would be the second all-party meeting on the vexed issue as Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had convened a meeting soon after the award was pronounced on February five. However, for want of details of the more than 1,000 page award, no decision could be taken.

The meeting would discuss threadbare the verdict and suggest the future course of action. The Government had stated that the award had committed "injustice" to the State and planned to go on an appeal before the Tribunal, with the other alternatives being approaching the Supreme Court and/or seeking Centre's intervention.

The Government had also started consulting constitutional and legal experts, besides irrigation experts to finalise its stand.

The State had been witnessing protests in the Cauvery basin areas continuously since the award was announced, particularly in Mandya district, considered to be the hotbed of agitation, disrupting both rail and road traffic between Bangalore and Mysore.

Leaders, cutting across party lines, and several organisations have condemned the award, which had asked the State to release 192 tmc ft of water to Tamil Nadu at the Biligundulu gauging point of the Central Water Commission. In the interim order announced in 1991, the Tribunal had asked the State to ensure release of 205 tmc ft at Mettur and fixed a monthly quantum.

Kumaraswamy held a meeting with members of Parliament from the State on the issue in New Delhi on Thursday, where it was decided that the State would take up the issue in both Houses of Parliament to highlight the "injustice" meted out to the State and pressurise the UPA Government at the Centre not to notify the award.