The Hindu : Karnataka News : Dharam Singh defends Alamatti stance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 14, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Dharam Singh defends Alamatti stance

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUMALA. Aug.13. The Chief Minister of Karnataka, Dharam Singh, on Friday took serious exception to the diatribe that was unleashed at him and his State by Andhra Pradesh when the row on the Alamatti issue was at its peak recently.

"There is no point in calling my State or me arrogant because as Chief Minister I have to first protect the interests of my State and my people to whom I am accountable," he said. It was quite true that at the instance of the all-party team which the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, led to the Prime Minister, the latter spoke to him over phone and sought release of water from Alamatti. "But still as Chief Minister, I have my own problems and concerns for my State," he said. Talking to mediapersons at Tirumala where he arrived with his wife, Prabhavathi, and family on a two-day pilgrimage, Mr. Dharam Singh, however said as much as 1.42 lakh cusecs of water from Alamatti dam was released to Andhra Pradesh -- thanks to the heavy rains which brought in a bountiful of, 1.52 lakh cusecs of water to the dam.

Elusive Veerappan

On the delay in nabbing the elusive forest brigand, Veerappan, he said the major impediment was lack of adequate professional training for the State force in jungle warfare with the result that the State had to depend on either its neighbours or the Central forces. He however was optimistic about zeroing in on Veerappan soon.

He said that the work on the international airport at Bangalore would commence in November.

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