Mysuru: Chief Minister Siddharamaiah has demanded the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ending the Cauvery row involving Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He maintained that the State had no choice but to follow Supreme Court order on release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
Speaking to press persons at Mysore Airport in Mandakalli here this morning, the CM said that the dams in Cauvery basin were only half-full and as such the Government was finding it hard to release water to canals.
Claiming that he himself was a farmer, Siddharamaiah said he was not the one to hesitate even for a minute to release water to canals if there was enough storage in dams.
Stating that the first priority of Government was supply of drinking water, followed by agriculture and other purpose, the CM said the State Government was always committed to protect the interests of farmers.
Lingayat religion issue
Replying to the BJP’s allegation that the Congress was out to divide the society in the name of Veerashaiva-Lingayat separate religion, Siddharamaiah said it was the BJP which was dividing the society and not the Congress.
Pointing out that Veerashaiva Mahasabha had submitted a petition seeking a separate Veerashaiva Lingayat Dharma while Mate Mahadevi had sought Lingayat dharma, the CM said he had asked the two to come together for a meeting, where an amicable solution can be found.
Claiming that State BJP President B.S. Yeddyurappa as opposition leader had written a letter seeking a separate Veerashaiva-Lingayat dharma, and which has also been confirmed by another senior BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa, Siddharamaiah accused the BJP of playing politics. Commenting on the 3-day Dr.B.R. Ambedkar international event held at Bengaluru recently, the CM said such an event was necessary, as communal forces were getting deep-rooted in the State.
Siddharamaiah said the event had spread the right message to the society, at a time when secularism was under severe threat.
Hindi in Metro
Referring to the use of Hindi in Bengaluru Metro stations, the CM said there was no need for Hindi in Metro Stations of Bengaluru. Pointing out Chennai Metro stations had only two-language signages, the CM questioned BMRCL’s three-language signage.
He said that he had written to the Centre on making Kannada mandatory at Metro Stations. Lashing out at the Centre for displaying a step-motherly attitude towards the State, Siddharamaiah said while the Centre instantly released Rs. 500 crore as relief to flood-hit-Gujarat, it was silent to repeated requests by Karnataka for release of funds to tackle drought.
NDRF Policy
Continuing his tirade at the Centre, the CM criticised the new National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Policy, in which new guidelines have been incorporated.
Asserting that the new NDRF policy was detrimental to the States, the CM said that as per the new NDRF guidelines, only 26 taluks of the State can be declared as drought-hit, while the fact was that 166 taluks were reeling under drought.
The Chief Minister, who arrived by a special flight from Bengaluru along with Social Welfare Minister H. Anjaneya, was received by DC D. Randeep, Police Commissioner Dr. A.S. Rao, DCPs Dr. H.T. Sekhar and Dr. Vikram V. Amathe, MUDA Chairman D. Dhruvakumar, Commissioner Dr. M. Mahesh, MCC Commissioner G. Jagadeesha, MLC R. Dharmasena, KEA Chairman B. Siddaraju and others.
The Chief Minister left for T. Katuru village in the taluk to take part in the first death anniversary rituals of his son Rakesh Siddharamaiah.
Entire congress team, all MPs are in Bangalore! Why he needs Modi to handle this? If all the congress MPs protest agaist TN, they may budge! No, they don’t want to do that! Instead they want to allot 5 rooms of private space in Parappana agrahaara jail to Shashikala and conduct her Durbar from jail! They want to punish the honest police officer who complained about it! They just want to politicalize this Cauvery issue! If prisoner from TN has so much hold on Karnataka CM and the government, even God can’t fix this issue! Our CM and his gang us fooling the Karnataka public but privately they are just acting as the agents of TN Givernment!
Mr. Raju’s comments are not based on truth. First of all, the Sasikala’s issue is not by politicians, it is by corrupt babus. Not only Parappana Agrahara, almost all the jails provide good facilities to inmates, if they pay bribe. You can find it by visiting any jail. For the mistakes of corrupt officials, let us not blame politicians.
Secondly, our state Karnataka is not treated on par with Gujarat or Punjab or Tamilnadu, thats because, the MPs from our state are not aggressive and they are not well educated or well informed about what they are supposed to do to help our state develop fast. They are taking care of their own interests as they don’t have any accountability. They improve their family, relatives, same caste people and party followers. General public are not in the list of politicians or bureaucrats. More than politicians it is the bureaucrats that accumulate illegal wealth. Even after demonetization, don’t you know that Govt. officials accept bribe in cash? who will stop them ?
Even our PM Mr.Modi wants to push Hindi on Karnataka people. He speaks in English when he goes to Tamilnadu but when he comes to Karnataka, he uses only Hindi. In his mind Karnataka is taken for granted. Even our MPs don’t let the PM understand that Karnataka has its own, historical language and it is official in Administration.
So, representatives of people have to play an important role, otherwise things don’t workout properly.