Slamming the Congress government over the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, alliance partners BJP and JD(S) jointly held a protest in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue at the Vidhana Soudha here on Wednesday.
BJP veteran B S Yediyurappa and JD(S) legislature party leader H D Kumaraswamy joined the protest.
Kumaraswamy alleged that Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who holds the water resources portfolio, had been making 'careless statements' on serious issues like Cauvery river water.
“The Cauvery issue has proved that for him, looking after his business interests is more important than finding a solution to the problem at hand,” he said.
Kumaraswamy charged that Shivakumar’s careless attitude reflected in his department as none of the bureaucrats neither assisted the legal team in time nor provided right information to the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC), the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) and the Supreme Court.
The former chief minister said that he had been keenly following Shivakumar's statements.
“The moment CWRC gave its directions to release 3,000 cusec of Cauvery water daily to Tamil Nadu, Shivakumar said he is very happy. But there is a shortage of water in the river,” he argued.
Yediyurappa said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar must know that they should not behave like Tamil Nadu agents.
“They must realise the actual facts. In almost all our reservoirs, there is no water at all and it is not sufficient for even drinking purposes,” he said.
He asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can't intervene in this as the case is in the Supreme Court. “It's not possible for him to interfere," he said.
Published 27 September 2023, 21:40 IST