All-party team to meet PM for Cauvery distress formula, says minister

N Chaluvarayaswamy was speaking to reporters during his visit to the spot near Sir M Visvesvaraya statue here, where Raitha Hitarakshana Samiti members are staging a protest, condemning the release of water to Tamil Nadu from KRS dam.

Agriculture Minister N Chaluvarayaswamy said on Tuesday that an all-party delegation would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon, requesting him to convene a meeting of the four basin states to resolve the Cauvery water sharing issue and also to come up with a distress formula.

“We have sought time from the PM’s office,” the minister said.

Chaluvarayaswamy was speaking to reporters during his visit to the spot near Sir M Visvesvaraya statue here, where Raitha Hitarakshana Samiti members are staging a protest, condemning the release of water to Tamil Nadu from KRS dam. 

“The government should have insisted on a distress formula when the final verdict in the Cauvery verdict was delivered in 2018. The main problem is that the order was gazetted without doing so,” Chaluvarayaswamy said.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has written a letter to the Cauvery Water Management Authority, saying it is not possible to release water in the current situation, he said.

The protests against releasing of water to Tamil Nadu continued across Mandya district on Tuesday.

A team of BJP leaders submitted a letter written with blood to the DC, urging to stop the release of water.

Rajya Raitha Sangha president Kodihalli Chandrashekar said in Hassan that nothing would have happened even if the Siddaramaiah government had not released water to Tamil Nadu. 

Chandrashekar pointed out that water was not released when S Bangarappa was chief minister.

“He was not sent to jail. The Siddaramaiah government has erred and should immediately stop releasing water to Tamil Nadu. The whole state should be declared as drought-hit,” he said.

Reacting to Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar’s query as to where were the farmers’ organisations when they (Congress) had taken out protests and padayatra for the Mekedatu project, Chandrashekar said, “It is absurd. How can others support his party’s programme?”.

“You (Congress) had staged a Mekedatu protest for power. The people have given you power. But, you failed to show your commitment,” he said.