Cauvery issue: K'taka CM faults UPA approach

Bangalore, May 29: Accusing the Centre of meting out a step motherly treatment to Karnataka in the Cauvery water dispute, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy today urged it to change its previous approach and render justice to the State.

Talking to newspersons after an all-party meeting on the issue, he said the interests of the State had been continuously neglected.

For the last 58 years, people have been voting in different parties, but now they have to find out the party which had let down the interests of the State.

''This is the time for the Centre to rectify its past mistakes and render justice to the State,'' he said, adding that the question of leading a delegation in this regard to the Prime Minister would soon be taken up.

Asked whether the Assessors' Report (AR) on Cauvery water sharing was correct or not, Mr Kumaraswami said the question did not arise as the interim report itself was not acceptable to the State.

He said the Experts Committee, in its AR, had also not taken up Karnataka's ''just demands'' into consideration.

Karnataka Water Resources Minister K S Eshwarappa, in his briefing, said the all-party meeting unanimously agreed to reiterate the State's demand for 408 TMC of water. This had been the demand of all the previous State Governments, he added.

He said the Government would represent its demand in its reply to the AR before June 15 as directed by the Supreme Court. The release of the AR at a time when the final verdict was due had created a lot of conufusion in the State.

UNI