Minister seeks PM’s intervention to resolve Kalasa-Banduri dispute

‘There is no point in riparian States holding deliberations’

Minister for Small Scale Industries and district-in-charge Satish L. Jarkiholi has said that political consensus on the sharing of the Mahadayi waters cannot not be achieved without the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He told presspersons here on Friday that it was only through Mr. Modi’s involvement that the hurdles for the project, for which farmers had been staging an agitation for over two months, could be cleared.

The Minister said that the State government had not initiated steps to reach a consensus after the all-party delegation met the Prime Minister, as there was no point in the riparian States deliberating over the issue without the intervention of Mr. Modi. Considering these aspects, Mr. Modi should convene a meeting of the Chief Ministers of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra at the earliest, Mr. Jarkiholi said.

Expressing disappointment over what he termed as the Prime Minister’s failure to resolve the issue, Mr. Jarkiholi said that one should not play politics over a drinking water project.

Goa and Maharashtra should also respond positively to provide drinking water to the districts of north Karnataka, he said.

Replying to a query, Mr. Jarkiholi defended Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s move to write to the Union government seeking relocation of the proposed Indian Institute of Technology from Dharwad to Raichur.

He said that the BJP government led by the then Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar had taken a Cabinet decision finalising Raichur for setting up the IIT. “The Chief Minister has now written to the Centre based on the same decision,” Mr. Jarkiholi said. To another query, he said that technical grounds alone could not be the criteria for the selection and added that political will too was required for it.

Regarding complaints that Belagavi Mayor Kiran Sainak and some councillors were posing hurdles for development in the city, the Minister said that legal issues would be resolved through courts and he would convene a meeting with the Mayor and councillors to expedite development works.

Earlier, the Minister heard the grievances from the public on various issues concerning the city corporation and other issues.

‘Narendra Modi should call a meeting of riparian States’