Southern States - Karnataka   

JD(U), JD(S) to join protesters

By Our Staff Reporter

Bangalore Sept. 9. The Janata Parivar leaders, Siddaramiah, JD(S) State unit President, and P.G.R. Sindhia, JD(U) Floor Leader in the Legislative Assembly, today criticised the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, for agreeing to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu, causing great distress to the farmers in the State.

They made it clear to presspersons here that they were against the release of water and would join the Raithara Hitarakshana Samiti leaders who had launched an agitation at the K.R. Sagar and the Kabini reservoirs. They would extend support to the forcible closure of crest gates.

Mr. Siddaramiah accused the Congress party of "playing politics" over such sensitive issues. While Mr. Krishna and the Chief Secretary A. Ravindra, told the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) that Karnataka was ready to release 8,000 cusecs of water, the State unit of the Congress had passed a resolution against releasing any water.

Why were the Mandya MP, Ambarish, G. Made Gowda, former MP, and Congress MLAs protesting against the release of water? Could it happen without the knowledge of Mr. Krishna? he asked. He accused the ruling party of pretending before the people that it was on their side but, in reality, it had worked against them by agreeing to release water. With this, Mr. Krishna had lost his credibility with the Opposition.

Mr. Siddaramiah said that the leaders who attended the all-party meeting convened by Mr. Krishna were of the opinion that they should project the problems of the farmers with one voice and did not speak about their reservations over the failures of the Government at this difficult juncture. They also told Mr. Krishna after the Supreme Court directed the release of 1.25 tmcft. of water daily that he should convince the CRA of the problems of the State's farmers and should not agree to release any water to Tamil Nadu, but their hopes had been belied.

He said Tamil Nadu had asked for 48 tmcft. of water till October end. Now it would get 46.82 tmcft. from today at the rate of 9,000 cusecs for 52 days. Is this the way of sharing the distress situation? he asked. The live storage in the four reservoirs in the Cauvery Basin as of today was less than 42 tmcft.

The former Deputy Chief Minister was surprised as to why Mr. Krishna and the State BJP were congratulating each other when, in fact, both were party to the decision that would affect the State's farmers adversely. The Prime Minister's decision was a curse, he said.

He questioned the basis for the Solicitor-General's statement before the Supreme Court that the four reservoirs in the Cauvery basin area were getting a daily inflow of 2.5 tmcft. The actual inflow even today was around 6,000 cusecs, he said.

Even the Central Water Commission had failed to assess the ground reality in Karnataka before arriving at the distress sharing formula, which was immediately accepted by Tamil Nadu, as it was advantageous to it. Why did Karnataka not rebut such false claims before the court? he asked.

Mr. Siddaramaiah said that the people in Bangalore, Mysore, Hassan, and Mandya required around 18 tmcft. of drinking water. Now with the release of 9,000 cusecs daily, even drinking water would be unavailable. He took the Government to task for not making any effort to arrive at a distress sharing formula earlier.

He said the Centre should have sent experts to study the exact scale of distress on both sides and their water positions, before the CRA took a decision.

Mr. Sindhia said the Janata Parivar would not only support the Bangalore bandh called by Kannada organisations against the CRA decision, but also launch a peaceful protest against the release of water.

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