BENGALURU: Former prime minister and JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda on Monday sought Prime Minister Modi’s intervention to resolve the dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over sharing of Cauvery water and appealed to him to direct the Union Jal Shakti Ministry to file a review petition before the Supreme Court, which refused to interfere with CWMA’s order to release water to TN.
Addressing reporters here, Gowda insisted that the Centre constitute a committee of experts to study the ground reality in Karnataka. Dams in the Cauvery basin in the State haven’t received sufficient inflow in view of poor rainfall, the former PM said.
He lauded former CM HD Kumaraswamy for visiting the KRS dam to take stock of the situation there when officials of the department concerned failed to do so.
In his letter to the PM on September 23, which he released to the media, Gowda explained the distress situation the State is facing. He presented certain statistics and put forth some demands. They include: to immediately form a committee of five experts not connected to any political party, Karnataka and TN governments, and the Union Government; it should visit all Cauvery basin reservoirs in Karnataka and TN and submit reports to the CWMA and SC to initiate action as a measure of immediate relief.
The CWMA and CWRC should make periodical visits to the reservoirs in the Cauvery basin, preferably once in 15 days, to assess the situation instead of relying only on the records placed before them. “May I therefore kindly request you to give suitable directions to the Ministry of Jal Shakti to address these issues on priority,” Gowda appealed to Modi. He stressed the need for setting up an independent external agency, which has expertise in the field of integrated reservoirs operation studies, for assessing the situation in both states.
The agency should also be vested with the responsibility of formulating a distress formula, taking into consideration factors such as rainfall deficit, inflows, reservoir levels, storage positions, water required for irrigation and drinking purposes, monsoons in Karnataka and TN, actual utilisation of water under various categories, and mandatory discharges to be made by Karnataka to TN in different scenarios, Gowda stated in his letter.
Gowda also slammed the Congress as he alleged that it played power politics over the Cauvery issue.
“When I was fighting in the interest of the state with regard to the Cauvery issue all alone in the Parliament, the then PM Manmohan Singh suggested that I settle the issue in the court as he had to complete his term of one more year as PM with the support of 40 DMK MPs. Singh is still there as a witness. Four of the ministers, including Mallikarjuna Kharge, KH Muniyappa, M Veerappa Moily and SM Krishna from the state remained mute spectators. This was how the state of Karnataka was misused in the game of power,” he said.
JDS will support the Bengaluru Bandh and let it go in a peaceful manner, he said.