BENGALURU: Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda here on Saturday said that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the power to resolve the Cauvery water issue faced by Karnataka. He hoped that Modi would address it soon after the Lok Sabha polls when he becomes the PM again.
The JDS supremo took a dig at the Cauvery Water Management Committee and the Cauvery Water Management Authority directing Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu, whenever it applies without assessing the ground reality. “The Cauvery problem has a solution. We, the MPs from the state should fight together to make PM Modi realise the injustice done to us. There might be 40 MPs from Tamil Nadu, and we are 28, but we should unite keeping aside political affiliations. I will be in the Rajya Sabha for another two-and-half years. I will fight for Cauvery till my last breath,” he stated.
Gowda said that he will raise the issue in the next Parliamentary session, and has appealed to the PM for his intervention. “However, Modi cannot do everything immediately and we all have to struggle,” he remarked.
Gowda also regretted that the grants under the Accelerated Irrigation Programme, which he claimed to have been introduced when he was the Prime Minister, have not been given to the Cauvery Basin projects, citing that the dispute is yet to be resolved. But the Supreme Court has given its final verdict on sharing of the water between the two states and the government has gazetted it. Hence, the Cauvery basin deserved the grants for taking up drinking water projects, he explained.
A sum of Rs 8,000 crore was due to the state for the projects in the Krishna basin as well, he added, informing that the issue was brought to the notice of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources that held a meeting recently and convinced it of the injustice caused to the farmers in 10 districts of the Cauvery basin of the state.
HDK will contest LS polls only if Modi suggests: Gowda
With speculation rife over former CM HD Kumaraswamy joining PM Narendra Modi’s cabinet, former PM HD Deve Gowda on Saturday did not rule out the possibility completely. However, Gowda clarified that his son will take a call on contesting the Lok Sabha polls only if Modi advises him to. Recently, when Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda visited Gowda and Kumaraswamy, speculation arose that the latter would get a cabinet berth with the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare portfolio. “A one-time MLA has been made a CM and Modi replaced old leaders with new ones as CMs. Even Modi’s colleagues do not know what his action plan is. So I don’t know what is on his mind,” Gowda said.