The Hindu : `Jayalalithaa demand impossible'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 30, 2002

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`Jayalalithaa demand impossible'

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE AUG. 29. The Karnataka Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, D.B. Chandre Gowda, today said the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa's demand for nationalisation of inter-State rivers was "impossible.''

He told presspersons here that the demand was an "after thought'', having failed at the meeting of the Cauvery River Authority on August 27.

Mr. Gowda said the framers of the Constitution had deliberated on the issue in detail, realised its impracticability and left the sharing of river waters to the riparian States.

Asked about Tamil Nadu's decision to wait for the Supreme Court's direction, he said it was left to that State. "Like a child obeying the teacher'', Karnataka had implemented the directions of the Supreme Court and the Cauvery Tribunal, he added.

He wondered how Karnataka could release 30 tmcft water to Tamil Nadu when the storage in the State's reservoirs was only 51 tmcft.

Even during the distress year in 1995-96, Karnataka had released 11 tmcft to Tamil Nadu, he said.

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