Bengaluru: Accusing the state government of mishandling the Cauvery issue, senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister, Jagadish Shettar suggested on Wednesday that it ask the Supreme Court to send a team to study the ground situation in Karnataka’s reservoirs. Speaking to reporters here, he claimed the state’s counsel, Fali Nariman, had made some wrong calls in the case, and this had cost it dearly. “Its hard to believe that Mr Nariman’s offer in court to release 10000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu did not come to the notice of the government. It did not give the court proper details and this has resulted in the present situation,” he charged.
“At this time of the year in 2012, we had 81 tmc ft of water in the four Cauvery catchment area reservoirs. But now they have only 45 tmc ft of water left. It is impossible to release water to Tamil Nadu in this situation,” he contended.
As for the recent Cauvery riots in Bengaluru and other parts of the state, Mr Shettar blamed intelligence failure for the police’s lack of preparedness and the escalation in the trouble.
“The Chief Minister's negligence must be blamed,” he insisted. Moving on to the appointnment of Mr Shyam Bhat as KPSC chairman, the BJP leader claimed that KAS jobs were now being auctioned. “The government, which formed the Hota Committee to clean up the KPSC , is now violating its recommendations. What was the need to call for interviews in a 1:5 ratio as against the previous 1:3? This was done only to create more demand and more corruption,'' he alleged.
