CM rejects demand; Opposition grills govt for ‘failure’ in protecting state’s interests.
Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar came under a strong attack from the opposition in both the houses of state legislature for releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
Accusing the BJP government of total failure in the legal battle over Cauvery dispute, leader of the opposition in legislative assembly, Siddaramaiah wanted replacement of lawyer Fali S Nariman, who has been representing Karnataka in the arguments in Supreme Court.
Chief minister Jagadish Shettar and Water Resources minister Basavaraj Bommai rejected the demand and strongly defended Nariman.
“Nariman has been doing an excellent job in arguing the Karnataka’s case. I have full faith in his abilities and performance so far. It will not be prudent to replace him at this juncture,” Shettar declared, while replying to opposition attack in the legislative council.
The opposition members in both the houses accused the Shettar government of betraying the people of Karnataka by releasing 2.44TMC of water after assuring the state that he would not release water.
Justifying the water release, Shettar and Bommai said the water was released after Nariman told the Government to first comply with the SC order to release 2.44 tmc ft to Tamil Nadu, arguing that such a move would in fact bolster the case of the State, which is all set to file a review petition before the apex court.
Siddaramaiah argued that SC orders in recent times on the Cauvery appeared to be only based on Tamil Nadu’s arguments and alleged that it’s clear that the state has lost legal battle as far as the Cauvery issue is concerned.
“Change the lawyer. Nariman is not the only one. There are better lawyers in this country”, he said, but Bommai pointed that Nariman had been representing the State for the last 27-28 years.
“The Government should not have released water and should have faced the consequences and charged it with trying to stick to power. Tamil Nadu is demanding water for crop, we need it for drinking water,” Siddaramaiah countered.
Trooping into the well of the assembly to protest water release to Tamil Nadu, JD(S) members demanded that the state government compensate farmers who had suffered crop loss due to water crisis in Cauvery basin.
Similar scenes were witnessed in legislative council too.
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