Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar has urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to write a fresh letter to the Chief Minister and Leaders of Opposition of Goa and Maharashtra to find an amicable settlement to the Mahadayi water sharing issue.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr. Shettar said that Mr. Siddaramaiah wrote a letter only to Goa Chief Minister Lakshmikant Parsekar and based on the reply of the Goa Chief Minister, Mr. Siddaramaiah was trying to shift the blame on the BJP.
It was true that Mr. Parsekar said that the people of his State were not in favour of an out-of-court settlement as the matter was before the tribunal. However, in such crucial matters, it was necessary to get the support of the Opposition party for any State government before taking any decision.
Besides Mr. Parasekar, Mr. Siddaramaiah should have written to Goa’s Leader of Opposition to know his opinion on the issue. Hence, fresh letters should be written to the Chief Ministers as well as the Leaders of Opposition of the two States, he said.
Accusing Mr. Siddaramaiah of trying to gain political mileage in the matter, Mr. Shettar said that Mr. Siddaramaiah had not written to the Leader of opposition of Goa because he worries that if the Goa Opposition Leader’s stand concurs with the Chief Minister’s stand, he could work against him. It was Karnataka that was in dire need of getting Mahadayi waters. Hence, the State should make an all-out effort and not the Union government or Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Neither Mr. Siddaramaiah nor the Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil have taken this issue seriously, he said.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president Pralhad Joshi said that it was the Congress which had complicated the river water issue.
Before the Goa Government took the matter to the Supreme Court, the Congress, which was in power, did not do anything. It was the Congress which had passed a resolution to approach the Supreme Court in the Goa Legislative Assembly, Mr. Joshi said.
Jagadish Shettar says that Siddaramaiah was trying to shift the blame on the BJP
