Mangaluru (TOI): Former union minister B Janardhan Poojary demanded that PM Narendra Modi intervene forthwith to resolve the Mahadayi issue. Noting that providing drinking water is the fundamental right of people, and duty of both union and state governments to provide the same, he said PM should convene meeting of CMs of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra and solve the issue by issuing an executive order directing them to share the river water equitably.

Addressing reporters on Saturday, Poojary said the impasse over sharing of river water between riparian states is a Constitutional failure and there is no excuse for that. Reminding the PM about precedents in the past when then PMs including Indira Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri have sorted out such inter-state river water disputes with chief ministers of respective states, he said Modi too should follow suit and not allow a Tribunal to decide on such emotive issues.

Averring that all members of parliament from Karnataka should resign to bring pressure on Modi in this regard, Poojary said Congress workers, elected representatives - MPs and MLAs are ready for any sacrifice in the larger interests of people of Karnataka. Situation and circumstances are not right in Karnataka at the moment, Poojary said adding with water level depleting in major reservoirs in the state, PMs intervention on the issue is all the more important.

Exhorting both Modi and chief minister Siddaramaiah to wake up to plight of people of the state, whose travails due to drinking water scarcity is being highlighted by the media round the clock, Poojary said it is high time that political parties stopped playing partisan politics on the issue. "Every single issue is being politicized," Poojary said adding there is limit to all such things. The PM must also seriously consider inter-linking of rivers to address such issues, he noted.