Cauvery water dispute: No breakthrough at meet convened by Centre

September 29, 2016

New Delhi, Sep 29: A meeting convened by the Centre to iron out differences between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on the impasse over Cauvery river water sharing failed to achieve any breakthrough today.

cauveryuma

At the meeting convened by Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, Tamil Nadu refused to accept Karnataka's proposal that an expert committee be sent to the river basin to assess water availability.

"There was a request from Karnataka government to our ministry to form an expert committee to take a view over availability of water in the Cauvery basin. The Karnataka Chief Minister (Siddaramaiah) pressed for it. Tamil Nadu could not give its consent to the proposal," Bharti told reporters after the meeting.

She said ultimately, solution could not be achieved outside the court. "Now things are again before the Honourable Supreme Court," Bharti, who chaired the meeting, said.

Besides Bharti and Siddaramaiah, Tamil Nadu PWD Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy, chief secretaries of the two states, Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar, and officials from Central Water Commission attended the nearly three-hour meeting.

Bharti said the Ministry noted views expressed by the two states during the meeting, convened after a Supreme Court order on Tuesday, and the same will be submitted before the apex court when it hears the matter tomorrow.

Referring to the tense situation in the two states, especially in Bengaluru, Mysore and Mandya-- the hotbed of Cauvery politics-- Bharti urged people to "take care of each other" and ensure peace.

"I may go on an indefinite hunger strike along the border between the two states, if the problem persists," Bharti said, making an emotional appeal.

Speaking to PTI after the meeting, Karnataka Chief Secretary Arvind Jadhav said his state insisted on a Central expert committee's visit to the basin area to study "ground realities, actual quantum of drinking water available and crop situation" before water was released as directed by SC.

"Before releasing water, we want a central team to come and visit the Cauvery basin and assess ground realities, look at the situation and the level of drinking water and crop situation. And whatever the central team says, we will abide by that," Jadhav said. He also said the Tamil Nadu government reiterated the long-standing demand for setting up a Cauvery Water Management Board.

"To this, our Chief Minister replied that there is a hearing scheduled before a court in this regard on October 11 and let the issues relating to formation of the board be decided then," Jadhav said.

Meanwhile, on Karnataka's demand for sending an expert team to the basin area, Shekhar stated there is no provision under law in this regard and that the SC order in the matter also does not speak about it.

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TRUE INDIAN
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Thursday, 29 Sep 2016

Saffron dress turned into yellow. Is she having jaundice.

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News Network
May 9,2020

Kota, May 9: Karnataka Yakshagana Academy has come to the rescue of artists in distress due to cancellation of all Yakshagana festivals following coronavirus outbreak and clamping of lock-down.

The academy spends lakh of rupees every year from the money sanctioned to it on training new artists, performances and documentation. However, no such activity was undertaken due to COVID-19. Hence, the academy is discussing to transfer a large amount of money to Yakshagana artists as emergency aid, Academy President Prof M A Hegde said here.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, he said that along with this aid the donations by the public and Yakshagana admirers too could be given to the artists.

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News Network
March 4,2020

Mangaluru, Mar 4: Fifteen Iranian fishermen, arrested for illegally entering Indian waters, were shifted from Mangaluru to Central Prison Bengaluru at Parappana Agrahara recently.

 On October 21, coast guard officials intercepted two fishing vessels near Gayathri island, about 168 nautical miles off Mangaluru Coast and took into custody 15 crew members after they failed to produce necessary documents.

While one of the boats capsized after developing a technical snag, the other boat was brought to Mangalore Port.

On the basis of a written complaint lodged by Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Deputy Commandant Kuldeep Sharma, Karnataka State Coastal Security Police (KSCP) station in Mangaluru filed case against the 15 Iranian fishermen under Maritime Zone of Indian Act 1981.

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News Network
May 3,2020

Dubai, May 3: Over 150,000 Indians in the UAE, who wish to return home amid the coronavirus lockdown, have applied through the online registration process to the Indian missions here, according to media reports.

The Indian missions in the country last week opened online registration for the expatriates who wish to fly back home after getting stuck in the country amidst the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As of 6 pm on Saturday, we received more than 150,000 registrations, Consul General of India in Dubai Vipul told the Gulf News on Saturday.

A quarter of them want to return to their homeland after losing their jobs, he said.

According to a report in the Khaleej Times on Sunday, about 40 per cent of the applicants who have registered are blue-collared workers and 20 per cent are working professionals.

"Roughly 20 per cent have suffered job losses and about 55 per cent of the total applicants are from Kerala," Neeraj Aggarwal, Consul, Press, Information, Culture was quoted as saying in the report.

Aggarwal said that the figures would change as they are expecting registrations from workers from other states, including Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.

About 10 per cent of the applicants are visit and tourist visa holders who got stranded here due to the ongoing lockdown in India.

India extended the ongoing lockdown by two weeks from May 4 to contain the spread of the coronavirus that has affected nearly 40,000 people in the country.

Aggarwal said that a small number of the applications constitute those from pregnant women and other medical cases.

Since the online registration process was launched, the Consulate's website crashed several times due to the heavy rush of applicants wishing to register to fly back home.

The site has been working fine now though it took a lot of time for it to stabilise in the initial phase due to the heavy traffic, the counsel general said.

He said that the missions here have not yet received any information from the Indian government about the mode of transport of the stranded citizens, the prices of the tickets or how the COVID-19 test results of applicants would be assessed for their journey.

There are high-level discussions going on regarding these things, he said in the report.

Meanwhile, Norka (The Non Resident Keralites Affairs) said it has received a total of 398,000 applications from Keralites across the globe who wish to return home.

"Of which, the highest numbers are from the UAE. At least 175,423 applicants have signed up from the UAE," Norka said in an official statement on Saturday.

It also received 54,305 registrations from Saudi Arabia, 2,437 from the UK, 2,255 from the US, and 1,958 from Ukraine from those who wish to return to India, the Khaleej Times reported.

The coronavirus has infected 13,599 people and claimed 119 lives in the UAE, the Ministry of Health and Prevention said on Saturday.

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