HD Deve Gowda insists Centre to ensure Cauvery water for lift irrigation

New Delhi/Bengaluru: Former Prime Minister and JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda requested the Centre on Thursday that the Ministry of Water Resources consider Karnataka’s supplication on necessity of water for the lift irrigation projects and the pending Makedatu project, before setting up the Cauvery Water Management Board (CMB).

Deve Gowda on Thursday approached Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari and examined the issue. The meeting was held a day prior to the Union Water Resources Ministry met the main secretaries of Cauvery riparian states to discuss the Cauvery Water Management Board (CMB).

On February 16, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had coordinated to frame the CMB within a month and a half in a decision that possibly expanded Karnataka’s offer of Cauvery water, hence lessening portion for Tamil Nadu and settling the extended water dispute between the two southern states.

After the meeting, Deve Gowda told the reporters “I have asked for Gadkariji to set up the CMB in the wake of considering issues identified with lift water irrigation, the Makedatu venture and the trans-basin redirection of water, among others,” 

He likewise informed the government that the CMB ought to be set up on the off chance that it benefits Karnataka and guarantees 30-35 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water to the state.