Krishna to attend meeting convened by PM

By Our Special Correspondent

DHARWAD, JUNE 6. The Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr. S. M. Krishna, defended his decision to attend any meeting called by the Prime Minister to discuss the border dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Courtesy demanded that he attend the meeting convened by the Prime Minister where he would be restating the position of Karnataka.

Mr. Krishna said he did not share the views of the BJP leaders that the meeting convened by the Prime Minister should be boycotted.

As the Chief Minister of the state, Mr. Krishna said, he had some special responsibilities. He was required to go to New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister on the problems Karnataka might have.

Every time, the Prime Minister would receive him with due courtesy. It was proper that he reciprocated the courtesy to the Prime Minister by attending the meeting convened by the latter, Mr. Krishna said.

Mr. Krishna said that he had already written to the Prime Minister that any meeting convened to discuss the implementation of the Mahajan Commission report, Kerala which was also a party to that, should be invited. There had been no response as yet to this communication, he said.

Mr. Krishna said that the Prime Minister suggested meeting the two chief ministers during the WTO meeting in New Delhi but the meeting could not be held since the Maharahstra Chief Minister had to return urgently to Mumbai and was not in a position to stay back.

Mr. Krishna denied that he required the permission of the high command for appointing chairmen of the boards and corporations.

``It is all your speculation. Don't drag me into your speculations,'' the Chief Minister told media, while being noncommittal on when exactly the nominations would be made.

The state government had already made 10,000 nominations to various societies in Karnataka, he said.

On the Feeder canal issue, Mr. Krishna said the State Government was finalising the plaint to be filed before the Supreme Court. ``When we go to Supreme Court, we must go with a well drafted plaint,'' Mr. Krishna remarked.

On the continued work by Andhra Pradesh on the Feeder canal, ``do you expect me send police to the area?''

There was no point in leading a delegation to Prime Minister, he said. What Karnataka was demanding was that whatever had been said by the Supreme Court should be implemented.

``Why should we drag the Prime Minister in such embarrassing situations?'' he observed.

Mr. Krishna said that the State Government had taken up the interim report on regional imbalance given by the D M Nanjundappa committee, for phased implementation.

The Finance Department was going through several recommendations made there in.

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Section  : Southern States
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