Karnataka leaders to meet PM

BJP, Cong team head to Delhi to present States stand on Cauvery

Bharatiya Janata Party MPs and a few Congress leaders  from Karnataka will visit New Delhi on Monday to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and appeal to him to withdraw the directive asking the State to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

The BJP has 17 MPs from the State (excluding J Shantha, who has distanced from the party and associated herself with the BSR party of B Sriramulu).  The delegation will be led by Bangalore South MP Ananth Kumar.

SMK rushing back

With the Cauvery agitation intensifying in the State, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has cut short his United States visit and will return to New Delhi on Monday, sources said.
Krishna and a delegation of State Congress leaders are also likely to meet Prime Minister  Manmohan Singh in support of the State’s stand on the Cauvery issues, the sources added.

Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, along with Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Law Minister Suresh Kumar, left for New Delhi on Sunday evening to hold discussions with the State’s legal team.

The Supreme Court is taking up the State’s plea to reconsider the September 28 order on Monday, even as intense protests over release of water to Tamil Nadu continued to sweep Cauvery river basin areas for the eighth day.

It seems the State government does not want to take any chances this time as it had come under criticism especially from the Opposition on the manner in which it handled the Cauvery issue in the Supreme Court.  The Opposition had alleged that there were ‘lapses’ on convincing the Supreme Court on the ground realities in the Cauvery basin. Shettar and his Cabinet colleagues are scheduled to hold discussions with State’s senior counsel Fali Nariman in the national capital on Monday.

The State has sought a stay or modification of the September 28 apex court order which directed it to release 9,000 cusecs daily to the neighbouring state till October 15 as per orders of the Cauvery River Authority. The State has been complying with the direction since September 29 midnight.