Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu: CM Siddaramaiah calls for special emergency meeting on Sept 13
Bengaluru(PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called for a "special emergency meeting" on September 13, following the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) on Tuesday recommending that Karnataka release 5,000 cusecs of water every day for the next 15 days to Tamil Nadu.
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, ministers of the Cauvery basin region, former chief ministers of all parties, senior ministers of the state cabinet, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members will participate in the emergency meeting.
"The special emergency meeting will be held on 13-9-2023 at 12:30 PM at Vidhana Soudha's conference hall," the Chief Minister's office said in a statement.
Earlier today, Siddaramaiah held an emergency meeting regarding the next steps to be taken in view of the CWRC's recommendation. Shivakumar, several senior ministers and officials including Chief Secretary, and Chief Minister's Legal Advisor Ponnanna participated in the meeting.
After CWRC recommendation came out, Shivakumar said that the state is in no position to release Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu, as it doesn't have enough water storage, due to lack of adequate rainfall in the river basin region.
He said, the matter is next going to come before the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA), most probably by tomorrow, and Karnataka will vehemently put forward its stand before it.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
