Confirm or face contempt case, AP told

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, JUNE 2. The Minister for Major and Medium Irrigation, Mr. H. K. Patil, said here on Saturday that the State Government would file a contempt of court petition in the Supreme Court next week against the Andhra Pradesh Government, if it did not give official confirmation about the stoppage of the work on feeder canals near Honnagondana Halli in Sira taluk.

Mr. Patil, who attended a meeting of senior Supreme Court advocates, technical experts and senior officers to discuss the issue, said the State Government would not go by the reports in newspapers about the statement of the Andhra Pradesh Minister for Irrigation, Mr. Venkateshwar Rao, that the work had been stopped. The work was started on March 17, and from Siddappanakatte to Byadageri in that State, the proposed canal- way had been dug up. Mr. Rao made a similar statement in Delhi recently, but the work was later continued. The Karnataka Government would accept only an official confirmation sent through a committee comprising ``responsible'' people of that Government.

Asked what the Government would do if Andhra Pradesh did not make such a response, he said that Karnataka Government would file a contempt of court case next week, as decided at the all-party meeting chaired by the Chief Minister, Mr. S. M. Krishna. Referring to the Union Water Resources Minister's reply to Mr. Krishna's complaint against the Andhra Pradesh Government, Mr. Patil said the former had advised the State to solve the issue bilaterally.

Taking serious objection to the suggestion, Mr. Patil said that it was nothing but shirking of responsibility by the Centre. The complaint was made for violating the Bachawat Award and the Supreme Court direction, and it was not a bilateral issue that could be solved by the two governments.

Condemning the Centre for its ``failure'' to intervene in the matter and restrain Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Patil said that Karnataka had followed what it could do in a federal system, when another State resorted to ``mischief'' in sharing of river waters. He said the Tumkur Deputy Commissioner had sent reports that the work was not resumed.

Asked whether there was any motive behind the Union Minister's suggestion that the issue be solved bilaterally, since the Telugu Desam Party supported the National Democractic Alliance, Mr. Patil parried the question and said that Karnataka would warn the Centre, if it failed to protect its interests. The State Government would make it a party in the case, he added.

When his attention was drawn to the charge made by Mr. P. G. R. Sindhia, Janata Dal(U) leader in the Assembly, on the reported complaint by the Tamil Nadu Government against desilting of tanks under the Jala Samvardhane Programme, and the Centre`s circular restraining the State from doing it, the minister said that he had asked the officers concerned to verify this.

Mr. Sindhia had said that the Tamil Nadu Government had taken objection to the work for which the State had approached the World Bank for a Rs. 1,000-crore loan.

Mr. Patil thanked the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, for releasing water from the Ujani and Varana dams across the Bheema and the Krishna respectively to meet the drinking water needs of the villages in Gulbarga and Bijapur districts.

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