Krishna padayatra winds up

As Krishna’s padayatra entered its fifth day today, it was given a warm welcome in every village it passed. Vehicular movement on the Mysore-Bangalore road between Maddur and Mandya came to a standstill but no untoward incident was reported.

Though pleased with the people’s overwhelming response, Krishna refused to admit that this was a victory for him.

‘‘I don’t take it as a victory and I don’t have anything called victory or defeat. I will do my job. Tomorrow, after attending the rally, I will go back to Bangalore and mind my business,’’ he told reporters at Hanakere.

‘‘When I began the yatra, I said it was apolitical. I have not spoken politics and I don’t intend to. Tomorrow, when you hear me you can draw whatever inference you want to,’’ he said.

When asked if the padayatra would mitigate the crisis between the two states, Krishna said: ‘‘It is a crisis alright, it is a crisis of water, not of two states. It is not a crisis between institutions, it is a water crisis concerning farmers of the two states.’’

When asked if he thought the Cauvery water issue would not have gone out of hand if his predecessors had handled the problem effectively, Krishna said: ‘‘A day will come when we might have to discuss the way the whole issue was handled over the last few years.’’

On his not taking along the Opposition during the padayatra, Krishna said: ‘‘I am running the government, I cannot run the government with all parties. All parties have cooperated with me. I am grateful for their cooperation. But that does not mean I can take all parties to Vidhana Soudha every day.’’

When asked how long would the Cauvery issue haunt the state, Krishna said the bottom line was water conservation should be given more attention.

Two years ago, the government, through the Centre, had submitted a proposal to World Bank to desilt tanks all over the state, including in the Cauvery basin.

But Tamil Nadu wrote a letter stating that Karnataka would use up their share of water in the basin if the tanks were desilted. So World Bank cut its aid and asked the state to only desilt the tanks in north Karnataka.