DAVANGERE: The Davangere district unit of the Congress would take out a procession in the city on February 22 protesting against what it described as "biased and unfair final orders" issued by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. It would later stage a one-day dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office.

Over 5,000 Congress workers are expected to take part in the procession that would be led by S.S. Mallikarjun, president of Davangere district unit of the Congress and Shyamanur Shivashankarappa, MLA.

Speaking to presspersons here on Sunday D. Basavaraj, general secretary, Davangere district unit of the Congress and Jambagi Sharanappa, city block of the Congress president said the Congress was committed to protecting the river, land and language of the State.

They were worried why the coalition Government was merely issuing statements that it would hold an all party meeting.

Tribunal award

Mr. Sharanappa asked how the tribunal had awarded 419 tmc ft. of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu while Karnataka was given 270 tmc ft. water to irrigate over 27,29,000 acres of lands that come under the Cauvery achcut, he said.

The final orders gave room to suspicions as to whether Karnataka had not pleaded its case correctly or the members of the tribunal were really qualified to assess the situation, Mr. Sharanappa said. Congress leaders from the State were planning to go in a delegation to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to explain to them the situation.

Mr. Sharanappa said it was unfortunate that the dispute over the Cauvery water started in 1910 when M. Visvesvaraiah built the KRS reservoir.

Ashraya houses

Dinesh K. Shetty, former president of the city municipal councilquestioned the issuing of applications to poor people before identifying and purchasing lands for Ashraya layouts in Davangere.

Mr. Shetty said 2,000 beneficiaries from each ward of Davangere City Corporation were given applications for Ashraya houses.

However, the place to form Ashraya houses had not yet been identified and purchased.

Mr. Basavaraj said there was no place in the city to construct over 20,000 Ashraya houses.

Application fees

He alleged that the district administration had indulged in misleading poor people and had collected huge amount of money from poor people as application fees. Mr. Basavaraj said the district administration had stated that poor people would be given Ashraya houses on Below Poverty line (BPL) card basis and the list was yet to be finalised.

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