Yeddyurappa meets Karunanidhi

Speaking to reporters after half an hour meeting at Karunanidhi's Gopalpuram residence, Yeddyurappa said he visited the DMK patriarch to wish him as he was in Chennai.

Yeddyurappa, who was here for a medical check up, said Karunanidhi wanted to meet him in the hospital, but "I preferred to visit him at his residence to wish him".

To a question, Yeddyurappa said the two Chief Ministers had not discussed anything on the release of Cauvery water by Karnataka to the delta districts of Tamil Nadu. Yeddyurappa declined to speak more on the Cauvery issue.

On Tamil Nadu government's Rs 1,334 crore Hogenakkal project to supply drinking water to Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts bordering Karnataka, he said "we will discuss and finalise."

Tamil Nadu has said the Hoggenakkal project is on track and will be completed by 2012 but Karnataka has been consistently opposing the project as it envisages drawing water from Cauvery over which the two states are locked in a dispute for decades.

Yeddyurappa said a team of officials from Karnataka had identified land at Aynavaram here to install a statue of Sarvagna, Kannada saint poet famous for his three-line pithy poems called 'vachanas', and the Tamil Nadu government had in principle given approval for it.

Karunanidhi will visit Bangalore for the unveiling of statue of Tamil saint poet - Thiruvalluvar.

Yeddyurappa said Karunanidhi told him that the date for his visit would be finalised after the ongoing Tamil Nadu Assembly session.

Later, Yeddyurappa visited the Sri Venugopalaswami temple situated outside Karunanidhi's residence and was accompanied by state BJP President L Ganesan.