Cauvery: All party meeting on Wednesday, says Shivakumar

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar announced that the State government had called an all-party meeting on Wednesday to address the Cauvery river water sharing issue.

Shivakumar, who is also the Water Resources Minister, on Sunday, said that the meeting would not restrict itself to Cauvery alone but would address other rivers and projects associated with them such as Mahadayi and Krishna as well.

“We have called an allparty meeting on Wednesday to address the issues concerning Cauvery, Mahadayi and Krishna and the situation of the dams in the state as well. Some MPs have also been invited to take part in the meeting,” Shivakumar said, adding that the BJP and JD(S) had been politicizing the issue which concerned state interests.

He reiterated that the state had received poor rainfall this monsoon, which it difficult to release water to Tamil Nadu.

The issue cropped up on August 11 when Tamil Nadu Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the Karnataka State government had made it clear that it could only release 8,000 cusecs of water by August 22.

Duraimurugan had pointed out that in the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC) meeting it was decided that 15,000 cusecs per day would be released by Karnataka for 15 days.

They then approached the Supreme Court (SC), which ordered Karnataka to release water and the state was forced to comply.

The Congress government has been at the receiving end of political pressure since then with the Opposition BJP and JD(S) accusing them of not standing up for the interests of the state’s farmers.

Shivakumar on Thursday had sought to request the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) to reconsider their order asking Karnataka to release 10,000 cusecs per day for a period of 15 days.

It was JD(S) legislature party leader HD Kumaraswamy who first demanded that the State government hold an all-party meeting and Shivakumar appears to have complied.