State delegation to meet PM over Cauvery Board

A delegation of State leaders and MPs, cutting across party lines, will urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday not to constitute the Cauvery Water Management Board to supervise the sharing of water citing that appeals against the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal’s final award were pending before the Supreme Court.

Briefing reporters after a meeting of floor leaders of both houses of Legislature in Bangalore on Monday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the delegation will urge the Centre not to take any decision in “haste” and that the CWDT has nowhere in its award stated that the board was mandatory.

Siddaramaiah said there was no need to constitute the board as a supervisory committee headed by Union Water Resources Secretary was already monitoring the water release from Cauvery on a regular basis. An interlocutory application filed by Tamil Nadu has been merged with the civil appeals before the apex court, he pointed out.

The chief minister said a breakfast meeting with the MPs will be held at Karnataka Bhavan in the national capital on Tuesday at 8:30 am before meeting the prime minister. The four Union ministers from the State and several of Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet colleagues are expected to be part of the delegation.

Step of caution

On BJP leaders denying reports that a Cabinet note on constituting the Board has been circulated by the Centre, Siddaramaiah said the State government has anyway decided to take the delegation to Modi as a step of “abundant caution”.

He said all the parties were united in fighting for the cause of the State and there was no scope for politicising the issue.

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar said while Union Minister Ananth Kumar and D V Sadananda Gowda had denied that there was any move to constitute the board, BJP MPs will be part of the delegation in the interest of the State.

JD(S) floor leader in the Legislative Council M C Nanaiah said there was no case for Tamil Nadu to seek constitution of the board. Besides, the Centre had no powers to constitute it, he added.