Gowda to meet PM on Cauvery today

JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda on Sunday left for Delhi to hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on sharing of Cauvery river water with Tamil Nadu.

Gowda has sought an appointment with the prime minister on Monday. He wants to apprise Singh of the situation in the drought-hit Cauvery basin and urge him to send a Central team to assess the situation, party spokesperson Y S V Datta said.

Special session

Gowda will also urge the prime minister to immediately convene a special session of Parliament to discuss the issue. He is also scheduled to meet Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar in this regard, Datta said.

Meanwhile, the JD(S) State president H D Kumaraswamy alleged that both the BJP and the Congress had betrayed farmers of the Cauvery river basin on the water sharing issue. Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar has failed to convince the Cauvery River Authority headed by the prime minister on the prevailing drought situation.

At the same time, the Centre ordered the State to release water despite being aware of the plight of farmers in the region, he charged.