Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said today that the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments would soon be holding talks to resolve the issues arising out of the recent verdict of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.Kumaraswamy said he had spoken to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Monday and they had decided to hold a dialogue to resolve the contentious issue. “Karunanidhi has responded positively,” the Karnataka chief minister said adding that the final decision on whether the meeting should take place only between the chief ministers or whether delegations would also be involved in the talks would be taken only after consultation with his counterpart. Kumaraswamy also called up AIADMK leader and leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa, who had staged a hunger strike on Monday to press for an early solution to the water dispute among the riparian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. Pressing for a joint responsibility on this issue, he said there should be no animosity on this issue between Tamilians living in Karnataka and vice versa. He also said the leaders were responsible for helping the states reach a mutual agreement. “While a dialogue with Tamil Nadu and the other two Cauvery riparian states — Kerala and Pondicherry will also be pursued, Karnataka will not stop seeking legal remedies for the February 5 Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal verdict,” Kumaraswamy said. Double standards, says JayaCHENNAI: AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday accused Chief Minister M Karunanidhi of adopting double standards on the issue of notification of the final award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal, even as the latter contended that 2002 amendment to the Interstate River Disputes Act precluded the option of moving courts once the award was notified. In a statement, Jayalalithaa pointed out that the DMK general council in its meeting in 1992 had passed a resolution demanding the immediate notification of the Cauvery Tribunal’s interim award, and said that what applied to the interim award applied to the final award also. “But Karunanidhi was adopting double standards now.”
