TODAY IN INDIA

On Monday, a delegation led by Siddaramaiah will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi to request him to call a meeting of chief ministers of the riparian states -- Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka — to end the impasse. The issue of Karnataka sharing 7.56 tmc ft of water from Mahadayi to resolve the drinking water crisis in Belagavi and Hubballi-Dharwad is pending before the Water Disputes Tribunal constituted in 2009. The tribunal verdict is expected by December 2015. 

"We have been advised to apprise the Prime Minister of the problem faced by people in the north Karnataka region. We will request him to mediate and solve the issue at the earliest," Siddaramaiah told reporters. The meeting was attended by floor leaders of all parties in the legislature, MLAs, Union ministers and MPs from Karnataka. Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna M Kharge, former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa and Union ministers DV Sadananda Gowda and HN Anantha Kumar were present.At the meeting, some leaders suggested that an out-of-tribunal settlement is the best available option as the BJP-ruled states of Maharashtra and Goa cannot turn down Narendra Modi's request. At one point of time, Congress MLA Vinay Kulkarni and former water resources minister Basavaraj Bommai locked horns when the former said: "When your PM is sitting there why can't you ask him to do it?" The comment irked Bommai, who got into an argument with Kulkarni. Kharge then intervened and told them: "We should not politicize such issues." 

Earlier in the day, a group of farmers from north Karnataka staged a protest in front of Vidhana Soudha as they were not allowed to attend the meeting of the floor leaders on the Mahadayi issue.They tried to barge into the meeting, but police intervened. In the melee, a woman's leg got stuck between the iron bars of the gate. "We allowed only members who had invites to attend the meeting, but others took offence and staged a protest," a police official said. They called off the protest only after Siddaramaiah met them and promised to look into their demands.