No injustice will be done to farmers: Gowda on Cauvery issue

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Slamming Tamil Nadu for 'frequently' raking up the Cauvery River water issue, Karnataka Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda on Saturday asserted that no injustice would be done to farmers in the Cauvery basin.

"Tamil Nadu is in the habit of raising the water-sharing tangle at frequent intervals," said Gowda, who held discussions with the state's Irrigation Department and Law Department officials on Tamil Nadu moving the Supreme Court over utilising Cauvery waters. "We will take the matter seriously and deal with it legally", he told reporters here.

All the riparian states have to honour the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal order and also on the distress formula given by it, he said, adding, the interest of the state's farmers would not be sacrificed.

Meanwhile, Karnataka PCC president G. Parameshwara demanded that government immediately convene an all-party meeting to debate the matter and requested that the state not release water to Tamil Nadu. Kannada Chaluvali leader Vatal Nagaraj also made similar demands.

Tamil Nadu has filed an application seeking to restrain Karnataka from resorting to summer irrigation.

The two states are locked in decades-long dispute on sharing waters of the river and the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, set up by the Centre, had in 2007 given its final award, allocating 419 tmcft water to Tamil Nadu and 270 tmcft to Karnataka annually.

However, Karnataka has challenged the award in the apex court, alleging it gave a raw deal to the state overlooking its requirements and rights.