Shaken Shettar appeals to PM to review CRA order

The state government on Saturday filed a review petition before prime minister Manmohan Singh against the Cauvery River Authority's (CRA) order to release 9,000 cusecs of water on a daily basis till October 20. The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday had directed Karnataka to comply with the CRA’s order.

Chief minister Jagadish Shettar said the state government had arrived at a decision to shoot a review petition before the prime minister urging him to keep the order of the CRA in abeyance. The state government also urged the PM to send an expert committee to both the states to assess ground realities and then take a decision regarding the issue of Cauvery water.

Karnataka expects not to release water until Singh, who is also the chairman of the CRA, conveys his decision on the state's review petition.

“We have discussed and studied what previous governments have done in similar situations earlier. We discussed what best we can do to protect the interests of the Karnataka farmers now. All the leaders demanded not to release the water to the Tamil Nadu,” Shettar said.
He said they had come to this decision after discussing about the repercussions of not complying with the SC order and the options available with legal experts and all-party leaders.

CM Shettar had hoped that Singh would intervene before 8 pm on Saturday, when the water was to be released to Tamil Nadu.
The strategy behind the latest review petition before the prime minister is this: By doing so, the ruling BJP — not ready to be blamed for releasing water to Tamil Nadu on CRA's order —hopes to pass on the blame on Congress-led UPA, headed by Singh in case the petition, too, fails.

The state government was supposed to release water by Saturday evening since the SC's decision had come on Friday.
The farmers and Kannada activists are straining on the leash to launch a movement if the water is released to Tamil Nadu. That would cause irreparable damage to the poll prospectus of the BJP.

Considering all these factors, the BJP tactically asked the PM to take a call on the release of the water from state. If the PM rejects the review petition, the ruling BJP would leave no stone unturned in blaming the Congress for the decision. And if the PM considers the petition, it would be a victory for the ruling BJP.

Meanwhile, governor HR Bhardwaj called on chief minister Shettar to Raj Bhavan on Saturday evening to discuss the state's stand on Cauvery water issue.

Shettar, after explaining the steps taken by the state government, informed Bhardwaj that the decision on releasing water would be taken once the PM gave his opinion on the latest review petition. However, till late on Saturday there was no response from the PM.