Karnataka to ''pressurise'' centre to notify Krishna Tribunal award: CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said that the government will demand the Centre to issue a gazette notification for the award of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-2, at a meeting called by the Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil next week.
This will facilitate the use of waters allocated to the state and allow for an increase in the height of the Almatti dam, Siddharamaiah added.
He said that the state government will assert in the meeting that it will raise the dam height to 524 meters as there is no interim order by the Supreme Court.
The Jal Shakti Minister will chair a meeting on May 7 with the water resources ministers of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana to discuss the report-cum-award of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-2.
The CM chaired a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister and Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar, along with other ministers, legal experts, and officials, to decide on the state government's stance.
"Ahead of May 7 meeting, we consulted with the legal team to discuss the state’s position. Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-2 order was out on December 30, 2010, and subsequent orders in 2013. Yet, the central government has not issued the notification," Siddaramaiah said.
Speaking to reporters after the consultation, he noted that he and Shivakumar had met the central minister regarding this matter.
"The Union Minister has now called a meeting, and in that meeting, we will demand that the notification be issued immediately. The second tribunal order allocated 173 TMC of water for use, and to store and utilise this amount of water, the dam height must be increased from 519 meters to 524 meters. For this, the gazette notification must happen," he said.
Noting that Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, which were divided in 2014, had filed an application stating that the dam height cannot be increased without the gazette notification, the CM said. "They may divide the water allocated to them among themselves, but we must utilise the water allocated to us," he added.
"We will demand that the gazette notification be issued. We have already made this demand, and we will reiterate it at the meeting. Furthermore, we will clearly state that, in the absence of an interim order by the Supreme Court, we will increase the dam height to 524 meters," he added.
Expressing happiness over the Union Minister’s call for the meeting regarding the notification of the tribunal award, Shivakumar said, "We have already wasted 15 years since the tribunal award, so we are demanding and appealing to the central government and courts to issue the gazette notification because the cost of construction is increasing every year, and water is being wasted."
"We are pressuring the central government. I hope they understand. We appeal to the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra on this issue, as no one will be affected," he added.
Shivakumar said an all-party meeting will be convened after the May 7 meeting with C R Patil.
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Centre spent Rs 76.13 lakh on print media ads for RSS centenary, reveals RTI
New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Culture allegedly spent Rs 76.13 lakh on print advertisements marking the 100-year celebrations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), according to a Right to Information (RTI) reply.
The information was sought by RTI activist Ajay Basudev Bose, who filed an application seeking details on expenditure incurred by the ministry for advertisements commemorating the RSS centenary.
Bose shared a picture of the reply from the ministry on his official ‘X’ handle.
“It is informed that an amount of Rs 76,13,129 has been spent on advertisement given in various print media by the Ministry of Culture on the occasion of the completion of 100 years of RSS,” the government’s reply stated.
RTI reply shows Min of Culture Govt of India spent a Whopping Rs 76L,13K,129 on Advertisement in Print Media on occasion of 100 yrs of #RSS
— AJAY Basudev Bose (@AjayBos93388306) April 16, 2026
When Everyone knows RSS is Not Registered & Does not Pay any Tax is it justified to spend Tax Payers Money on such Private event??@RSSorg… pic.twitter.com/dW4IUtdNCg
Bose questioned the expenditure in the post X, “when Everyone knows RSS is Not Registered & Does not Pay any Tax is it justified to spend Tax Payers Money on such Private event??”
Reacting to the development, Karnataka’s IT-BT and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge also criticised the spending.
In a post on X, he asked why public money was being used for what he described as a “private ideological project.”
"Modi Sarkar spent Rs 76,13,129 of public money on newspaper advertisements to celebrate 100 years of the RSS. Why is Government spending taxpayers money on an unregistered, non-tax-paying organisation to celebrate their centenary?," he added.
Why is public money being used to serve a private ideological project?
— Priyank Kharge / ಪ್ರಿಯಾಂಕ್ ಖರ್ಗೆ (@PriyankKharge) April 16, 2026
Modi Sarkar spent ₹76,13,129 of public money on newspaper advertisements to celebrate 100 years of the RSS.
Why is Government spending taxpayers money on an unregistered, non-tax-paying organisation to… pic.twitter.com/EoZ6Pim3IM
According to reports, the RSS describes itself as a volunteer-based organisation and has stated that it functions as a body of individuals rather than a registered entity.
Founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in 1925, the organisation is marking its centenary year beginning from Vijaydashami in 2025, with the milestone observed on October 2.
