Bangalore: Former Karnataka Minister, H N Nanje Gowda on October 2 asked the Prime
Minister, A B Vajpayee to convene an emergent meeting of the Cauvery River Authority
(CRA) by tomorrow (October 3) to resolve the water sharing row between the state and
Tamil Nadu.
He demanded at a press conference in Bangalore, that the MPs from Karnataka mount
pressure on the Prime Minister to convene the CRA meeting.
Gowda appealed to the Supreme Court to take note of Tamil Nadu "actions", which has
drawn "about 64 TMC ft of water since July from its reservoirs including Mettur, even
though it had no crops in the Cauvery basin".
Expressing surprise over Tamil Nadu's contention that the storage level in Mettur has
dropped to 11 TMC, he said during June, it had 15 TMC ft and so far about 41 TMC ft
has flowed from the state, taking the total to 56 TMC ft.
"This has demonstrated that it had drawn 45 TMC from Mettur and 19 TMC from Bhavani
Sagar to fill up its 900 tanks and released the remaining water into sea," Gowda
said.
Gowda said he was shocked to learn that the Centre on March 28, has notified an
amendment to the Inter-State Water Disputes Act 2002 to the effect that the decision
of the Tribunal after its publication in the Gazette shall have same force as an
order or decree of the Supreme Court.
The notification, he charged, has been done to help Tamil Nadu.
Gowda denounced the "silence" maintained by state's MPs in this regard and their
failure to stall it and demanded that they owed an explanation to the people.
He charged that the Union Ministers representing Karnataka have not acted in a
responsible manner.
Gowda also demanded that the Centre appoint a Tribunal to adjudicate sharing of
surplus Krishna river waters between Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and
Maharashtra.
Referring to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu's request to
Karnataka to release water from Alamatti dam on "humanitarian considerations", he
described the plea as a "ploy" by the neighbouring state to prove that Karnataka has
not utilised its share of water.
Gowda speaking to reporters in Bangalore, termed as a "barren policy" the recently
adopted National Water Policy guidelines and charged the Centre with ignoring the
suggestions by Karnataka.
He said Andhra Pradesh has "diverted 40 per cent of Krishna river water outside the
Krishna basin" and added had that state utilised water within the basin, it would
face no
shortage.
Gowda wanted Naidu to take the initiate for linking of Godavari river with Cauvery,
as mooted under linking of peninsular rivers project.
PTI
