Mounting pressure on the Centre, the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Thursday adopted a unanimous resolution seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to resolve the inter-State row over sharing of the Mahadayi river waters.
The Prime Minister should hold a meeting of the Chief Ministers of riparian States of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka to facilitate Karnataka to divert water from the Mahadayi to the Malaprabha “keeping in mind the continuous protests and struggles in the State for its share of water as well as good relationship with the neighbouring States”, the resolution moved by Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil said.
The Minister said the resolution was in keeping with the suggestion of the Mahdayi Water Disputes Tribunal that the riparian States could resolve the row either through mediation. The resolution was moved after the Opposition Janata Dal (S) resorted to a dharna demanding that the government take concrete action on the Mahadayi row.
‘Bring pressure on PM’
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he would write to the Prime Minister yet again and seek an appointment to convince him once more about the need for his intervention. He urged the BJP MPs to bring pressure on the Prime Minister to intervene.
Earlier, Mr. Patil said: “The Centre had earlier maintained that it cannot intervene as the matter was being looked into by the tribunal. However, as the tribunal itself has now suggested that efforts should be made to find a solution through dialogue, the legal hurdles are cleared for the Prime Minister to intervene.”
Karnataka would adopt a “give-and-take” policy, he said, while suggesting that the State was ready to share the benefits of the proposed hydel power project with Goa. He also said that Goa would be the biggest beneficiary of Karnataka’s Mahadayi project as that would not only provide mega share of water to the State during monsoon, but also ensure regulated flows during non-rainy season as Karnataka would have to release water into the river if it was allowed to set up a hydel plant as envisaged in the project.
