BELLARY: S. Prasannakumar, general secretary of the State unit of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), said on Monday that the State should file an appeal before the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal seeking a revision of its award to release 419 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu.

He told presspersons here that a solution could be found to the problem through legal procedures and negotiations. The issue should not be politicised, he said.

On the Janata Dal (S)-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition Government completing one-year in office, he said the Government was making promises without financial provisions in the budget to realise them. Except for gimmicks to gain publicity, the achievement of the Government was "zero". Corruption had become rampant at various levels, he added.

Citing instances, he said the law and order situation had gone from bad to worse. The Government was yet to come out with concrete proposals to implement its promises, especially with regard to waiving farm loans. Though the Government had announced that all farm loans would be waived, it changed its stand stating that only loans from cooperative institutions would be waived. This had caused confusion among the people.

Referring to Chief Minister Kumaraswamy's village stay, he said that it would not help in solving the problems faced by farmers and the poor.

According to him, it was not the right path adopted by the Chief Minister to ensure development.

"By sleeping in villages no development can be achieved," he said.

On the move to amend the APMC Act, he said that it would be detrimental to farmers and benefit multi-national companies.

The Government should drop it and protect the interests of farmers and workers working in the APMC yards.

Mr. Prasannakumar criticised the Congress for not "discharging its duty as a responsible Opposition party and raking up irrelevant issues".

He said the CITU would launch an agitation against the Government if it "failed" to make budgetary provisions for all the promises made to the people.

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