Bheema waters: Krishna to lead delegation to Maharashtra

By Our Special Correspondent

HUBLI, JAN. 21. The Chief Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna, will lead an all-party delegation to Maharashtra to seek the release of Bheema waters.

This was disclosed here on Sunday by Mr. Jagadish Shettar, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly. Mr. Shettar said the team would meet the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, on January 24. Mr. Shettar said he had mooted the idea of taking a delegation to Mumbai in view of the silence of the Maharashtra Government to the request made by the Minister for Major and Medium Irrigation, Mr. H.K. Patil, who visited Mumbai recently.

Mr. Shettar said the situation in parts of Bijapur district on the banks of the Bheema was serious, and village elders with whom he had interacted had described it as something unprecedented.

According to Mr. Shettar, the situation had arisen because of the impounding of the Bheema waters in the Ujjani Dam near Sholapur in Maharashtra. There were also reports that Maharashtra had diverted the Bheema waters to the Seena Project.

Mr. Shettar said Karnataka had been seeking the release of water to meet the drinking water needs of the villages on the banks of the river.

Meanwhile, Mr. Patil said that there had been no response so far to the request made to the Maharashtra Chief Minister to release Bheema waters. ``But we are quite optimistic about our request being favourably considered.''

Asked whether there was any particular reason for the non-release of water, Mr. Patil said there was nothing except the view of Maharashtra officials that the water was inadequate to meet their own requirements.

When a correspondent asked whether Maharashtra was demanding money for the release of water, Mr. Patil replied in the negative, but said that Karnataka would not mind paying for the water. Mr. Patil also denied the suggestion that Maharashtra had linked the release of water to the Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute.

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Section  : Southern States
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