K’taka CM seeks meeting with Parrikar over Mhadei row

PTIrBengaluru rrKarnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote to his Goa counterpart Manohar Parrikar seeking tentative dates of his availability for the meeting after Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis expressed his willingness for the meeting on his request for it. rIn his letter to Parrikar, Siddaramaiah said the chief minister of Maharashtra, the third riparian state, has sought tentative dates to organise the meeting. r“Hon’ble chief minister of Maharashtra appreciating the need to have a meeting amongst us (Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra) to resolve the Mhadei water dispute amicably ina friendly environment has been kind enough to respond to my letter and has sought tentative dates to organise the meeting,” he said in his letter to Parrikar. r“Therefore, I request you to indicate your convenience, so that a meeting could be organised amongst us at a mutually convenient date/time,” he added. rTaking the initiative, Siddaramaiah on May 30 had written to his Maharashtra counterpart Devendra Fadnavis for organising a meeting of the three chief ministers. rThis is the second such attempt to bring the chief ministers of three riparian states on the same table for discussion. The first similar meeting in October last year did not succeed. rThe Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal had last September asked the states concerned to resolve the waterdispute amicably by holding discussions. rThe Karnataka government, which has locked horns with the neighboring Goa on the larger issue of sharing Mhadei river water between both the states, had earlier petitioned the tribunal seeking the release of 7.56 tmcft of water for the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project. rBut it was rejected in an interim order on July 27, resulting in violent protests in North Karnataka. The Kalasa-Banduri project is being undertaken by Karnataka to improve drinking water supply to the twin cities of Hubballi-Dharwad and the districts of Belagavi and Gadag.