BIJAPUR: Leader of the Opposition in the Bijapur Zilla Panchayat Panchappa Kalburgi on Thursday alleged that the State team was not putting up a strong case before the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Kalburgi said the State was not giving much attention to the illegal projects executed by Maharashtra. Karnataka should understand that being an upper riparian, Maharashtra could harm the State's interest more than the lower riparian Andhra Pradesh could cause.

Mr. Kalburgi said the State had mentioned about the illegal projects of Maharashtra in its complaint to the Union Government while seeking constitution of the tribunal that had been hearing the case for almost two years. However, the counsels representing the State had not been highlighting Maharashtra's illegal project.

Moreover, he said, the State Government constituted a technical team to find out illegal utilisation of Krishna waters by Maharashtra after he petitioned the Government in this regard. The report, which was filed by the Government two months ago, threw light on many illegal irrigation projects, dams and excess utilisation of waters by Maharashtra. The team recommended to the Government to initiate steps to protect the State's interests.

The team mentioned in its report that Maharashtra did not cooperate with it while collecting data about its project. It showed that Maharashtra had something to hide. The State counsels should have brought the issue to the notice of the tribunal. Also, they should have put the findings of the experts before the team. However, nothing had been done, he said.

He demanded that reservoirs constructed illegally by Maharashtra be taken over by the Centre and declare them as `carryover reservoirs' for the benefit the riparian States. Mr. Kalburgi, who is also the president of Bhima Nadineeru Rakshana Raithavarga Samiti, said that his organisation would soon approach the Supreme Court urging it to make his organisation a respondent in the case on the ground that the right of thousands of farmers in using water from the river was at stake.

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