PM Modi yet to respond on all-party delegation meet: CM

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Hubballi: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hadn’t responded to a written request to meet with an all-party delegation from Karnataka to discuss river water sharing and projects such as Mahadayi, Upper Krishna and Cauvery dispute.

He made the comments to mediapersons at the Hubballi Airport. “Although the State government is ready to launch the Mahadayi project, forest and environment clearances have not been obtained from the Central government. All related reports have been sent to the Centre,” Siddaramaiah said.

The idea for the all-party delegation was suggested by the CM on August 23 after the all-party meeting conducted in the Vidhana Soudha.

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

Duraimurugan 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.

In late August, Tamil Nadu demanded that 24,000 cusecs daily be released for 10 days. However, CWRC made a relatively modest demand of 7,200 daily in the same time period.

When Karnataka pointed out that the same would be difficult to accommodate, CWRC amended the demand and asked that daily 5,000 cusecs be released in 15 days (Tuesday to September 12).

The State government appealed against the same and has since stopped releasing water to Tamil Nadu due to protests by farmers’ organisations. Request for drought guidelines revision Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah has also reiterated the demand that the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) guidelines on declaration of drought be revised.

The CM had written to the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar with a similar request on August 13.

“A request has been submitted to the Centre to revise the guidelines for providing relief to drought-declared areas, but no response has been received so far. In the drought-declared areas, the state government undertakes many measures including drinking water, and assistance for sowing. But he said that timely help should come from the central government as well,” Siddaramaiah said.