Yeddyurappa coming to Goa, but no talks on Mhadei: CM
GOANEWS DESK/PTI, PANAJI | 10 February 2010 09:33 IST
Chief minister Digambar Kamat has agreed to the proposal of his Karnataka counterpart B S Yeddyurappa to come down to Goa to meet him.
Mr Kamat however has once again clarified that Goa is firm on its position of not having any talks with Karnataka on the issue of Mhadei water dispute.
Mr Kamat also denied that he had held any talks with his Karnataka counterpart over Mhadei water issue in Delhi, during the chief ministers' conference last week.
Kamat was reacting to the reports emerging from Bangalore, claiming that he had talks with Mr Yeddyurappa on the issue.
While Karnataka has been pushing for a joint meeting on Mhadei, Goa has refused to hold talks on Mhadei. Karnataka is also opposing the proposal of Goa government to have a tribunal on the issue.
This is the way Mr Kamat described meeting Mr Yeddyurappa in Delhi:
"That day Karnataka chief minister met me while I was coming out of a toilet along with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Can you have talks on such important issue outside the toilet?"
"We were coming out and he was going in the toilet. Do you expect me to discuss the issue there?," Kamat shot back responding to a question.
Kamat however admitted that when Mr Yeddyurappa asked him why he did not attend the joint meeting convened in Delhi, he said he gave a reason that he was pre-occupied.
At this, Mr Kamat said, Mr Yeddyurappa said that he would come down to Goa to meet him. "How can I tell him not to come? But we are firm on our position not to have talks with them on Mhadei", he reaffirmed.
