Karnataka rejects Cauvery verdict

An all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy in Bangalore yesterday resolved to reject the final award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal delivered recently.

Making the announcement after the meeting held at the State Secretariat Vidhana Soudha, Kumaraswamy said the State Government had decided to reject the Tribunal’s verdict as all the parties in Karnataka were of the unanimous view that the final award has been “unjust” to Karnataka.

The next course of action available for the State Government was to file an appeal before the Tribunal or move the Supreme Court for relief. “The State Government will take a final decision on the matter after consulting legal and constitutional experts in the matter”, he said.

The Tribunal has allocated 270 tmc feet of Cauvery water to Karnataka and directed the State to release 192 tmc feet of water annually to Tamil Nadu, which receives a total of 419 tmc feet.

Kumaraswamy said all the political parties in the State had extended support to the State Government on its future course of action on the Cauvery dispute. Saturday’s meeting was attended by Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly and former Chief Minister Dharam Singh, Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, CPM legislator G V Sriram Reddy, Republican Party of India leader Rajendran, Cauvery Protection Committee President G Made Gowda and others.

Yesterday’s all party meeting was the second such exercise after the Tribunal delivered its verdict on February 5. The earlier meeting convened soon after the pronouncement of judgement had remained inconclusive, as many political party leaders had not received a copy of the 1,000-page order.

The all-party meeting in Bangalore comes close on the heels of a meeting of Karnataka MPs convened by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy in New Delhi on Thursday. The meeting decided to raise the issue in both the Houses of the Parliament and bring pressure on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) not to notify the award.

Later, a delegation of all-party MPs from Karnataka met Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee seeking an early debate on the Cauvery issue in the Parliament, much to the resentment of Tamil Nadu’s political establishment. Members of various political parties from Karnataka have given notices to Rajya Sabha Chairman to raise the issue in the Upper House.