Goa CM must convince opposition, not me: Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: With the state pinning its hopes on its Special Leave Petition on the Cauvery issue, expected to come up for hearing on October 18, the government is working hard to present an effective case before the Supreme Court.

Speaking to reporters here,  Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the state’s legal department was working on how best to present Karnataka’s case in court when the Special Leave Petition comes up for hearing.

“It is an ongoing process and the state is ready,”' he declared.  As for the Mahadayi water dispute, he said that it was up to the respective Chief Ministers of the three states involved to take their opposition parties into confidence before the October 21 talks in Mumbai. Asked about  leaders of the Bharatiya  Janata Party demanding that the Congress convince its state units in opposition in Goa and Maharashtra to let Karnataka have its share of the Mahadayi river water, Mr Siddaramaiah said the saffron party should be talking to its own Chief Ministers in the two states to make this happen.  “The Congress is not the only opposition in Goa and Maharashtra. There are parties such as Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party too. The Chief Ministers will take everyone into confidence. I too have convened an all party meeting on October 19 on the same issue,” Mr Siddaramaiah noted.

He said, “This is the first meeting and I hope everything goes smooth. Based on the suggestion made by the tribunal, first  took the initiative and wrote to both the Goa and Maharashtra Chief Ministers, inviting them to Bengaluru for talks and also offered to meet them elsewhere if they wanted. Now the Maharashtra Chief Minister has taken the initiative and I am going to Mumbai for the talks.”

Jagadish Shettar hails Maharashtra CM for calling meet
Former Chief Minister and opposition leader in the Assembly, Jagadish Shettar on Thursday congratulated Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis for convening a meeting on October 21 with Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Goa to discuss the Mahadayi water dispute on the advice of the tribunal.

“Although the Congress, which is in the opposition in Goa is against the talks, Goa Chief Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar will attend the meeting. The ruling Congress in Karnataka should convince its state units in Maharashtra and Goa to help resolve the dispute,” he  added.

Asserting that the BJP has hopeful the Mahadayi water dispute would be resolved through talks, he said BJP leaders from the state, who met Mr. Fadnavis, gave him a clear picture of the drinking water crisis in North Karnataka.

“We asked for 7.5 tmc feet of drinking water for North Karnataka and Mr Fadnavis promised to do justice to the state”,  Mr. Shettar said, also urging the state government to  withdraw cases filed against the Mahadayi agitators and make the police inquiry report into their protest public.