'TN does not require more water'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, SEPT. 14. An all-party delegation on Cauvery, led by the Chief Minister, Mr. S.M.Krishna, will meet the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B.Vajpayee, on Saturday in New Delhi, and try to convince him that Tamil Nadu does not require any more water for its Kuruvai crop which has been harvested and is ready for ``collection of levy.''

Briefing presspersons after a meeting of MPs, which was chaired by Mr. Krishna, at the Vidhana Soudha here on Friday, the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr. D.B. Chandre Gowda, said that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms. J.Jayalalithaa, had told her Legislative Assembly that levy collection of paddy would start from Saturday.

It meant that harvest of paddy had been completed, he said and asked, ``then, where was the need for releasing more water?''

Mr. Chandre Gowda said the situation in the State was worse because of the failure of rainfall. There was no chance of the State getting any rainfall now and the situation at the four dams was bleak for the next few months.

But the north-east monsoon had become active over Tamil Nadu, he added.

He said in view of these facts the request by Tamil Nadu that it needed water for its Kuruvai crop was not sustainable. Probably, he said, the Tamil Nadu leaders wanted to store water for the next crop.

Karnataka, on the other hand, was facing an unprecedented drought. While Tamil Nadu raised three crops, Kuruvai, Taaladi and Samba, Karnataka was struggling even to raise one crop, he said.

Stating that the Prime Minister had agreed to meet the Karnataka delegation at 4.30 p.m., he said a memorandum would be submitted to Mr. Vajpayee.

The delegation would also meet the President, Mr. K.R.Narayanan, and present a memorandum to him.

Asked about the significance of meeting the President on the issue, Mr. Gowda said that he was the supreme leader of the nation. The Rashtrapati Bhavan had communicated that the President had agreed to meet the delegation. While the entire delegation would meet the Prime Minister, only six members of the delegation would meet the President.

On the reported demand of the Tamil Nadu Government for convening the meeting of the Cauvery River Water Monitoring Authority, Mr. Gowda said that it was for the Prime Minister to take a decision on it. But before doing so, Mr. Vajpayee should consult Karnataka too.

Among the 19 MPs who attended the meeting were the former Railway Minister, Mr. C.K.Jaffer Sharief, the former Legislative Council Chairman, Mr. K.Rehman Khan, and Mr. Oscar Fernandes.

The meeting was informed by the officers that the Mettur and Bhavani reservoirs had more than 20 tmcft. of water.

Six ministers, Messrs. Mallikarjun Kharge, K.H.Ranganath, H.C.Srikantiah, Kumar Bangarappa, T.B.Jayachandra, and Ms. Rani Satish, and the former Chief Minister, Mr. S.R.Bommai, and the Janata Dal(S) MP, Prof. A.Lakshmisagar, attended the meeting.

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