BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said he will hold an all-party meeting in the first week of February to discuss with Opposition leaders the water disputes with Tamil Nadu.
After holding a virtual meeting with his cabinet colleagues, experts and senior counsel representing the state on interstate river disputes, Bommai said the Karnataka government has already raised objection to the second phase of Hogenakkal drinking water project and inter-linking of rivers by Tamil Nadu.
"We have already filed petitions before the Supreme Court against Tamil Nadu's projects and appealed to the Central Water Commission not to approve them. We are putting up a strong legal fight," he said. The meeting on Saturday discussed cases related to Krishna and Cauvery river basins and Mahadayi project. Another meeting will be held by January-end to discuss these issues further, he said.
“We will discuss water dispute cases with water resources and law ministers. We will decide on measures to be taken to implement projects in the interest of the state. We will formulate our stand after the all-party meeting in February,” he added.
Saturday's meeting was attended by Water Resources Minister Govind Karjol, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhu Swamy, Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar, Advocate-General Prabhuling Navadagi, senior advocates Shyam Diwan and Mohan Kataraki.
No hike in milk price, power, water tariffs
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai clarified that the govern-ment does not have any proposal to increase water and power tariffs and milk prices as demanded by the departments concerned and Karna-taka Milk Federation.