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| Treat water as national resource: PM | | |
NEW DELHI, MAR 8
In the backdrop of the row over sharing of Cauvery water, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today appealed to all political parties to treat water as a national resource that should not divide people.
Singh's brief reference to the issue came while winding up debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address in Lok Sabha during which he made a general appeal without mentioning the water row between southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Water should not be dividing people but uniting them, he said.
The Prime Minister's remarks came soon after former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda raised the issue while participating in the discussion, much to the dislike of members from Tamil Nadu who protested.
Gowda, who Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said had assured him that he would not raise the issue, spoke about the Cauvery matter at the end of his speech and wanted a debate.
He said India is a vibrant and mature democracy and if a discussion is not allowed it would be "symptomatic of the decline in the institutions of democracy". He was supported by members from Karnataka.The Speaker observed there was no intention on the part of the Chair to deny any discussion on the sensitive matter.
"Don't impute motives to the Chair," he said as Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi and Shipping Minister T R Baalu were seen pacifying Tamil Nadu MPs. |
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