Thank you for support: HD Deve Gowda to Centre

Bengaluru: Thanking the Union government for filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court against the formation of Cauvery Water Management Board, former PM and Janata Dal(S) supremo, H.D. Deve Gowda, however, observed on Tuesday that the Centre’s responsibility was far from over.

Speaking to reporters here,  he said  the Centre had to stick to its stand on October 18, when the Special Leave Petition filed by Karnataka came up for hearing in court and help the state get the Cauvery tribunal’s order rectified. “I am not asking the Centre to do injustice to Tamil Nadu. All I am asking is that it should help Karnataka  get the injustice that has been done to it,  rectified. It was an order passed by the erstwhile British government and if has not been modified even 100 years later, what are we supposed to do?'' he asked.

Commending the role played by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union minister, Ananth Kumar, he said,  “They sensed the problem and the result is the affidavit. They are sending an expert team to the Cauvery basin to study the situation.”

Mr Gowda also thanked the Kerala government for expressing its solidarity with Karnataka by not nominating a member to the Cauvery Water Management Board.

As for the Supreme Court’s order on releasing 2,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu between October 7 and 18, he said it was binding on the state.