Deve Gowda wants PM to send official team to Karnataka

Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda today disagreed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ruling asking Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu and wanted the Centre to depute teams for an on-the-spot assessment of storage level in both states.

The Prime Minister should have deputed officials from the Water Resources ministry to assess the ground reality and storage level before convening the Cauvery River Authority meeting of riparian states, Gowda told a press meet here.

"Without undertaking this exercise, Singh not only convened a meeting but also issued the direction to Karnataka in the absence of any data on the situation. Even now it is not too late. The Centre should depute teams to both states. I will soon write a letter to the Prime Minister in this regard", Gowda said.

He welcomed state Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar's stand on not releasing water to Tamil Nadu.

Gowda pointed out that the storage level in KRS dam stood at 80 tmcft and the state required 67 tmcft for irrigation and also water to meet drinking water needs. Contrary to this, there is no water requirement now in Tamil Nadu, he claimed and accused that state of "unnecessarily" raking up the issue.