Gowda threatens hunger strike

JD(S) leader and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda on Friday said he would launch a fast unto death agitation if the State fails to get justice in the Cauvery water sharing imbroglio with neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

Addressing a press conference here, Gowda said he would first seek an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also the chairman of the Cauvery River Authority, and explain to him the present ground realities in the Cauvery basin in the State.

He would also explain to Union Water Resources Harish Rawat that the present live storage in reservoirs of Karnataka was not sufficient to even meet the State’s own irrigation and drinking water needs.

Gowda said he would also raise the matter in the Lok Sabha. “I had submitted notice to the Speaker to speak on the Cauvery issue four times.

I was allowed to speak once but MPs from Tamil Nadu did not allow the discussion to continue by staging a dharna in the well of the House,” he said and added that the State government should have waited for the report of the expert committee appointed by the Cauvery Monitoring Committee, which had studied the ground realities in Cauvery basin in the two states, before releasing water to Tamil Nadu.