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Talks better option to resolve Cauvery dispute, says J H Patel

Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel today said the Cauvery dispute could be solved through discussions and consensus and not through adjudication.

Briefing newspersons after holding an all-party meeting of MPs and leaders of various political parties in the Karnataka legislature on the eve of a meeting of chief ministers of Cauvery basin states, Patel said the state had taken the united stand since the beginning of the dispute that the problem could be resolved through discussions alone. The outcome of today's meeting was 'fruitful' and all were united, he said.

He said the Supreme Court also felt the problem should be solved through negotiations and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee also agreed with this line of thinking.

The leaders called upon the prime minister to set right the injustice meted out to the state in the century-old dispute.

Farmers of Karnataka had suffered much and the opinion in the meeting was that they should be saved further hardships. The leaders, however, said the state was not against giving water to Tamil Nadu.

The chief minister said the Karnataka government had always been releasing water to Tamil Nadu in the spirit of brotherhood as a good-will gesture and that that state should realise this.

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