Defending the boycott of a crucial all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Siddaramiaah on the Cauvery row, State BJP President B.S. Yeddyurappa said his party has developed a feeling that Mr Siddaramaiah wants to make BJP a “culpable-partner” in his ‘sins of omission and commission. Ahead of the meeting, Siddaramaiah called on former prime minister Deve Gowda at his residence.
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It also directed the Karnataka government to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu from today till September 27.
At the Cabinet meet, all leaders were of the view that it is impossible to release water to Tamil Nadu. If a State being a part of India can stay defiant in executing the orders given by a supreme judicial body, this will set a risky precedence in dispute between States in coming days. He also said that the cabinet has chose to request the Governor of Karnataka to convene both the Houses on Friday. The BJP has been insisting that the government should not release water to Tamil Nadu due to the distress situation.
Siddaramaiah said Karnataka had placed certain facts before the Cauvery Supervisory Committee, but it still directed the state on Monday to release 3,000 cusecs per day between September 21 and 30.
While the JD (S), especially Siddaramaiah’s one-time mentor HD Deve Gowda and KS Puttannaiah of the KRRS attended the meeting, the BJP made a decision to boycott the all-party meeting.
The chief minister spoke to Deve Gowda for more than one hour on the Cauvery issue. Its Karnataka unit chief, BS Yeddyurappa, had said the meeting would serve little objective and that Siddaramaiah needed to convene a special session of the state Assembly to discuss the water dispute between the two states, The Hindu reported.
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“Despite calling for a cabinet meeting, floor leaders meeting, and all-party meeting on a number of occasions, you [the government] did not take any decision, keeping the interest of farmers in mind”. Even pro-Kannada leaders echoed the sentiment saying that the Centre should solve the Cauvery crisis, failing which the state would be forced to think on those lines. However, Modi told the Karnataka delegation that he couldn’t interfere in the matter and directed them to meet the Central Water Resources minister Uma Bharti, which they did.
