hubballi im from maharashtra a stakeholder in the mahadayi and kalasa banduri row i know about the issue and will speak to prime minister narendra modi to take this issue out of the tribunal said union minister nitin gadkari speaking to farmers who met him at a private hotel on tuesday gadkari said hed convince modi of the need to convene a meeting of the chief ministers of karnataka goa and maharashtra the union government is aware that mahadayi water is the lifeline of north karnataka and were keen on solving this issue at the earliest he addedvinaykumar patil of rait okkuta explained to the minister the need for implementing the kalasabanduri nala project we have been protesting for this for over 225 days as north karnataka is reeling under severe drought people are facing a shortage of drinking water for months if the union government settles this issue outside of the tribunal people will get water for drinking and agriculture he added other leaders veeranna malagi hanamantgouda huded manjunath lootimath subhash chandra gouda patil and veeranna neeralagi talked about the issue and explained how the agitation has been going on for the past 78 months kalasabhanduri and mahadayi projects are quite different from each other the mahadayi issue is related to three states as far as the kalasabhanduri issue is concerned its only about karnataka unfortunately both issues have got clubbed together please set right the matter out of the tribunal court they saidthe area depends on agriculture but if theres no rain people face a drinking water shortage many people are committing suicide and migrating to other places in search of food and shelter the okkuta urged gadkari to take action in public interest they said they would abide by the decision of the mahadayi tribunal but urged the union minister to convince the prime minister of the need to settle the kalasabhanduri issue amicably outside the tribunalthey also requested the minister to make arrangements to withdraw cases booked against farmers during the rail roko though we had taken permission from the authorities and had intimated the public railway officials booked cases against 600 farmers they saidlokanath hebasur leader of the malaprabha mahadayi kalasa bandhuri raita horata okkuta told reporters that gadkari responded positively to their request