State not to move SC on Krishna water award

Disclosing this here after holding a meeting with F S Nariman, who heads the Karnataka legal team on Krishna dispute, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said the state government, would, however, seek clarifications before the Tribunal.

The meeting with Nariman was also attended by Congress leaders H K Patil, T B Jayachandra and V R Sudarshan while Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Revanna, who was scheduled to be present, did not attend the meeting. Karnataka Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai was present.

Confusion

The chief minister said there was some confusion on what step the state government should take to go before the apex court or seek clarifications over the award from the tribunal itself.

“Now, after the meeting with Nariman, the confusion is over and we are all convinced that we should approach only the tribunal,” the chief minister said.

In its order on December 30, 2010, KWDT II allowed Karnataka to build the Almatti dam up to the originally proposed height of 524.25 metres and allocated 911 tmc ft (thousand metric cubic feet) of water to the state as against 1001 to Andhra Pradesh and 666 to Maharashtra.

Informed sources pointed out that Karnataka would file an application under Section 5 (3) of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act seeking an explanation on certain points relating to use of undistributed remaining water of 513 tmc return flow uses and restriction on the Upper Krishna Project for using only 198 tmc in 65 per cent dependable year.