Thomas (Special correspondent)
Union Home Minister,Amit Shah chaired the meeting.Karnataka Chief Minister, Basavaraj Bommai,Andhra Pradesh,CM,Jaganmohan Reddy, Lakshadweep Administrator,Praful Patel, Puducherry Lieutenant Governor,Dr.Tamilisai Sounderajan,Puducherry Chief Minister,N Rangaswamy participated in the meeting.
Karnataka Chief Secretary,P Ravikumar, Development Commissioner,Vandita Sharma,Water Resources,Additional Chief Secretary,Rakesh Singh,N Manjunath Prasad,and other senior officials too were present.
29th Southern Zonal Council Meeting:
Strong Centre and strong States needed to build a strong nation :
Strong Centre and Strong States are needed to build a strong nation.Many issues which have eluded a solution for many years could be resolved if we work with a spirit of cooperation.
Chief Minister,Basavaraja Bommai said in his address at the 29th meeting of the Southern Zonal Council held in Tirupati on Sunday which was chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
It was inevitable for the southern states to work with the true spirit of cooperative federalism as enunciated by Prime Minister,Narendra Modi as the states were geographically inter connected.
The states need to come together and work together.Then only the country could develop, Bommai said.
Prime Minister’s principle of Cooperative federalism should be the basic principle for working together and it is the responsibility of the states to implement it,Bommai added.
He expressed his happiness about the functioning of Southern Zonal Council and said, it offered a very good forum for resolving many issues related to inter state water sharing, transport connectivity, health etc in a spirit of consensus.
The Chief Minister raised the following issues of Karnataka that needed coordination with other states at the meeting.
Karnataka has already conveyed its stand on river linking projects in Godavari,Cauvery and other river basins to union government.
Karnataka should get its share of surplus water in the Cauvery,Krishna and Pennar river basins, the Chief Minister stressed.
Taking exception to Tamil Nadu for taking up the Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar link works even before allocation of the share of surplus waters for other states which have a share in the basin, Bommai said it had no legal sanction.He urged the union government not to approve the project.
He reiterated Karnataka’s demand to centre not to accord legal clearance for major permanent irrigation projects taken up by neighboring states in violation of the verdict of Water Disputes Tribunals.
Telangana had no right to take up Palamaru Ranga Reddy and Nakkalagandi lift irrigation projects from Srisailam reservoir in Krishna basin to draw huge quantum of surplus waters, Bommai said.
Bommai also opposed construction of Rajiv Gandhi Sangam Banda barrage by Telangana.Such a permanent project to draw surplus waters would deprive Karnataka of its rightful share of water ,he said and expressed Karnataka’s readiness for a joint survey in this regard.
Joiint Survey should be conducted on the impending submergence of villages in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh due to construction of Gundravulu reservoir by Andhra Pradesh across Tungabhadra river.
Andhra should share the details it has submitted to the Tribunal and the clearances it has obtained from the centre regarding the project, he said.
As far as sharing of Krishna waters is concerned Andhra and Telangana had no clearance for any projects other than the ones approved for utilising the already adjudicated quantum of waters.
He appealed for speedy response on concluding an agreement with Telangana, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala on boosting interstate transport services.
Bommai stressed the need for better coordination among Home Departments of southern states to effectively prevent and combat crime,strengthen communication networks at border areas.
Karnataka is in the forefront in harnessing renewable energy sources. It is the only state which has met the targets set by the centre in this domain. He appealed to centre to remove the inter state tariff disparities in the interest of drawing investment.
State government has created Core DBT Forum to ascertain the identity of the beneficiaries. Karnataka has already announced in its budget about linking all centrally sponsored schemes to DBT Forum to prevent use of fake documents and eliminate fake beneficiaries he said.
