Siddaramaiah government failed to handle case properly, says BJP

Former BJP chief ministers B S Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday slammed the Congress government on Thursday for “failing to protect” Karnataka’s interests while fighting the Cauvery case before the Supreme Court. 

Yediyurappa said the government must file another appeal urging the Supreme Court-monitored special team to take stock of present water levels in all reservoirs of Cauvery river basin in the state.

BJP leaders also accused the ruling Congress of trying to keep its alliance with DMK intact at the cost of state’s as well as farmers’ interests.

Yediyurappa told reporters that it is amply clear now that both law and water resources departments have failed miserably in presenting the state’s case properly in the top court, by not submitting proper data and documents in time. 

The BJP veteran further alleged that the Congress’ alliance with DMK in Tamil Nadu seems to have played a major role in the state government’s decision to release water to Tamil Nadu. 

“At least now, the state should take steps to file another petition, urging the Supreme Court to send a special team just to monitor the reservoir levels in Cauvery basin before releasing water to TN,” he said. 

Convince ally: BSY

Rejecting the state government’s demand for Centre’s intervention, Yediyurappa said: “The Congress can resolve this case by itself by convincing its alliance partner DMK.  The DMK being the Congress party’s alliance partner should ideally help its ally by not demanding more water... Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should initiate a dialogue process with his Tamil Nadu counterpart soon.” 

Bommai pointed out that the state should have filed an appeal before the Supreme Court when the CWMA pronounced its first order. “The state moved the apex court only after releasing water to Tamil Nadu twice. The top court is fully dependent on the CWMA. The attitude of CWRC and CWMA is not right. The CWMA must see the ground reality before issuing orders based on statistics,” he observed.

He argued that Tamil Nadu would receive rain in the return (northeast) monsoon  whereas the rainy season has almost ended in the state.

“This needs to be explained to the apex court. The government should at least now fight to preserve water for drinking water purposes. The farmers must be compensated at Rs 25,000 per acre,”  he said.