This is expected to effectively counter Congress criticism against the Cauvery scheme evolved by the BJP-led government and agreed to by the Chief Ministers of the four riparian states.

Yediyurappa told media persons that State Congress leaders were opposing the agreement reached by all four states, merely because it had been initiated by a BJP Prime Minister.

Laying the blame for the dispute at the door of the Congress, he gave credit to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for resolving it amicably. Vajpayee, he said, had come to the rescue of Karnataka, by implementing the revised draft scheme in the face of the threat from alliance partner and AIADMK leader J Jayalalitha to pull out of the coalition.

On the other hand, he held the Congress government, both at the Centre and in the stateresponsible for the dispute, which he said was the result of decisions taken during various critical phases such as the interim award by the Cauvery Tribunal and the 1991 notification seeking implementation of the award.

In fact it was during the tenure of then Congress Chief Minister S Bangarappa that an unanimous resolution was passed in both houses of Legislature condemning the notification.

The BJP leader also pointed out that during the recent discussions on the subject held at the meeting called by Chief Minister JH Patel in Delhi, all Congress state leaders including Veerappa Moily, SM Krishna, Jaffer Sharief and S Bangarappa had agreed to the scheme suggested by the Prime Minister. They cannot now withdraw their consent, he added.

The new scheme, he said, would remove all hurdles to the completion of pending projects in the Cauvery basin. Moreover, since the Prime Minister had already promised to formulate guidelines for a National Water Policy, this too would help the State when faced with thefinal award of the Cauvery Tribunal.

He also announced that his party would take a decision on Thursday on whether to go ahead with the proposed jail bharo agitation to protest against the fixing of metres on irrigation pump sets (IP sets). The decision will be taken at the state-level meeting being held in the city.