BENGALURU: The state government on Monday decided to call an all-party meeting of floor leaders and members of Parliament to discuss the
Cauvery inter-state river dispute and formation of the two committees to oversee the water sharing scheme.
After a meeting with chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and deputy chief minister G Parameshwara, water resources minister DK Shivakumar said: “As the matter needs to debated and deliberated at Parliament, we have called for an all-party meeting in the coming week to discuss and deliberate the future course of action to counter the injustice meted out to
Karnataka by the formation of Cauvery water management authority and Cauvery water regulatory committee, without consulting the state.”
Shivakumar, however, confirmed that the state has nominated water resources department principal secretary Rakesh Singh and Cauvery Neeravari Nigam limited managing director to the authority and committee respectively.
“But the nomination of these two members is under protest by the state, which has been conveyed in writing by the chief minister when he dispatched a letter to Centre on June 23,” said Shivakumar.
The minister said the Centre has given broad indications that the first meeting of the authority will be held on July 2, which had forced the government to nominate the two members to stay abreast of the decisions taken by the central government-appointed body.
Meanwhile, for the meeting, Shivakumar said the government will be preparing a presentation and a detailed document for the MPs and floor leaders to have the issue debated upon in the Parliament.
“We will be giving the MPs and the floor leaders of all the parties a detailed presentation on the Cauvery dispute and our reservations of the formation of the two river authorities. This will help them (MPs) to debate and deliberate upon the issue at Parliament which is scheduled to have a session later next month,” said Shivakumar.
Meanwhile, on the legal recourse over the matter, the minister said the government is in constant touch with their legal team in New Delhi and has taken the opinion of the advocate-general in this regard.
“While there is no intention to go against the Centre or even the Supreme Court decisions, our pleas to the Centre had gone in vain. The decision to form the two Cauvery regulatory and management committees were done overnight without our knowledge and without considering our concerns on the matter. All legal options are being explored to ensure that injustice does not flow from the seat of justice,” he said.
A political front within the two committees?
With the central government appointed Cauvery river regulatory authority and the Cauvery water management committee to have representations from the four riperian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Pudhucherri and Kerala, the two bodies may very well see a political alliance being formed with three states on one side and TN on the other.
With the Kerala government of Left Democratic Front (LDF) having representation from the ruling JD(S) party of Karnataka, as part of the Pinnarayi Vijayan government and the Pudhucherry government being headed by Congress party, there is a possibility of isolating TN in the two authorities.
When questioned whether Kerala and Pudhucerry have backed Karnataka’s stand on the two authorities, Shivakumar said: “These are all strategic issues and we would not like to discuss the matter in the open.”
Both Vijayan and Pudhucherry CM V Narayanswamy had made their presence felt at the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy earlier last month.
