Cauvery issue: All-party meeting held on seeking a resolution

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah assembled an all-party meeting on Thursday to talk about the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Cauvery issue collectively chose to accept an approach whether to look for a survey of the court decision and furthermore finalise its stand on the nature of the dispute resolution forum, with recommendations by the legal group, drove by Fali S. Nariman.

Siddaramaiah told the media that the worries of leaders of both the Houses of the legislature and legislators and MPs from the Cauvery basin had been heard. Their concerns will be passed on to the legal group. Notwithstanding, there was no lucidity on whether the dispute resolution mechanism meant constituting a Cauvery Water Management Board, he said.

Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil clarified that while the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal had alluded to the development of a board; the Supreme Court had just depicted it as a dispute resolution system and had not characterized its tendency and its constitution.

Clarification on this matter will be made on Friday when the Secretary of the Water Resources Ministry would hold a meeting of Chief Secretaries from the riparian States, he said. In the event that need be, Karnataka would look for elucidation at the meeting, Patil said. He said there was time till March 18 to record a survey request, if at all the State documents one.

The Supreme Court had articulated its decision on February 16, expanding Karnataka’s offer of Cauvery water from 270 tmcft to 284.75 tmcft. Of the extra 14.75 tmcft, the summit court had granted 4.75 tmcft for drinking water purposes in Bengaluru and the rest of the water reserved for dealing with the State’s irrigation needs.

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar, Bengaluru Central MP P.C. Mohan, JD(S) MP from Mandya, Puttaraju, and officials Y.S.V. Datta, Basavaraj Horatti, and Srikante Gowda participated in the meeting, in which Advocate-General Madhusudan Naik informed them on the Supreme Court decision.