Bangalore: The emergent session of both Houses of Karnataka Legislature on September 24 decided to defer the debate on the contentious Cauvery river water issue and other burning drought situation to a later date and adjourned sine die.

In the wake of a consensus that emerged at the joint business advisory committee meeting, it was decided against discussing the Cauvery problem as the matter was before the Supreme Court.

The meeting decided that the government convene the legislature session during first week of October to debate the Cauvery issue, acute drought conditions, kidnapping of Janata Dal – United (JD-U) leader Nagappa and the hardships faced by families of displaced in the Alamatti dam project, presiding officers of the Legisalative Council and Legislative Assembly, B L Shankar and M V Venkatappa, respectively, announced in the House.

Venkatappa said in the backdrop of the Cauvery case coming up before the Supreme Court on September 30 and the ongoing visit by the Cauvery River Monitoring Committee in the state, the actual data on water availability remained unavailable for discussion.

It would not be possible to discuss the Cauvery issue extensively without relevant statistics and also the drought situation, he said.

Making a similar statement Shankar, said at this hour of crisis, there was a need for all the political parties to help the government in overcoming it.

Venkatappa said the meeting considered the exigency which prompted the government to convene the emergent session and the situation that surfaced in the aftermath of Tamil Nadu filing a petition before the Supreme Court including the contempt petition against Chief Minister S M Krishna and three others.

Shankar said to ensure maintenance of peace and harmony, the meeting decided to avoid discussion now and adjourn the House.

Both the Houses earlier, passed obituary resolution to former members who died in the inter-session period and observed a minute's silence as a mark of respect.

The Assembly mourned the death of its former members, A V Muniswamy, Shankargoud V Patil, B N K Papaiah, noted theatre personality B V Karanth and Beechanahally gram panchayat member, Guruswamy, who committed suicide by jumping into the Kabini reservoir to protest water release to Tamil Nadu.

The Upper House condoled the death of Karanth.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members vociferously protested adjourning of the House and insisted on a debate on drought and other "burning" issue.

However, Venkatappa said it was an unanimous decision to adjourn the House to October.

Opposition BJP leader in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar defended the actions of his partymen, who virtually expressed dissent to the decision to which the party had agreed upon at the business advisory committee meeting, saying, he had urged the government to conduct the session for at least three days.

Shettar said the House could have debate on various issues barring Cauvery.

PTI