Cauvery row: Deve Gowda offers solution

Former prime minister and JD(S) national president HD Deve Gowda appealed to PM Manmohan Singh to send an expert team to Karnataka to assess the ground realities on the availability of water to release it to Tamil Nadu as directed by the Cauvery River Authority (CRA).

At a press conference here on Saturday, Gowda reacted to the PM’s order. “The decision was taken without assessing the extent of deficit rainfall in the Cauvery basin in Karnataka and the actual position of water in its reservoirs,” he said.

However, he clarified that he did not want to comment on the Supreme Court which had asked Karnataka to abide by the direction of the CRA. “The state government should not give any room to show that Karnataka is not ready to obey the Apex Court order. The state can obey the CRA order by releasing 9,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu for three days from Sunday and wait till the expert team submits its report,” said Gowda.

 He expressed his displeasure over the senior counsel from the state being absent when the SC heard the Tamil Nadu petition  to release 2 tmc instead of 9,000 cusecs.

Gowda said that both the Centre and State would have to face serious consequences in the Cauvery basin if there was a delay in sending the expert team.According to him, people facing drought in Hassan, Ramangaram, Chamarajanagar, Mandya and Mysore had started migrating to other places, including Mumbai. “Karnataka had faced a similar situation in 1994-95 when the SC while disposing of a Tamil Nadu petition had ordered to release 40 tmc ft of water despite strong protests. The decision of the UPA government to allow FDI in multi-brand retail sector may harm the state in the future, but the CRA decision would spell immediate doom,” he said.

He also appealed to Cauvery Hitha Rakshana Samithi president G Made Gowda under whose leadership the people were staging agitations, to comply with the CRA directions for three days.

TN acting like big brother

Gowda also accused Tamil Nadu of behaving like a ‘big brother’ in sharing of Cauvery water with Karnataka.

Gowda told reporters that Tamil Nadu leaders have always given a raw deal to Karnataka over the sharing of Cauvery water in 1898 and 1924.  Accusing TN leaders of not wanting a lasting solution to the dispute also referred to Tamil Nadu locking horns with Kerala on reconstruction of Mullarperiyar reservoir.