Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to constitute the Cauvery Management Board under ‘pressure’ from Tamil Nadu.
He told reporters here on Monday that the Supreme Court referred to a scheme and not board, and set May 3 as the deadline to the Centre to frame and submit a draft of the same. “We have opposed the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board from the beginning and have written to the Prime Minister expressing our view. I have written to the Prime Minister that he should not succumb to pressure from Tamil Nadu to constitute the Board but instead frame a scheme as directed by the apex court.”
The State has also sought a draft of the scheme to be prepared by the Centre, and the State too has submitted a scheme.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said he has sought time to meet the Prime Minister to explain the State’s concern and view and is awaiting a response from him. The Supreme Court’s deadline to frame and submit the draft of a scheme by May 3 came up on April 9 while hearing a contempt petition filed by Tamil Nadu against the Centre for its failure not to devise a framework to implement the apex court’s February 16 order on the Cauvery water dispute.
