Demand to call off water summit

BANGALORE: Peoples’ Campaign for Right to Water, Karnataka, opposed the Bangalore Water Summit that is scheduled to be held in the city between February 1 and 3.Addressing a press meet here on Monday, Prabhakaran, convener, Peoples’ Campaign for Right to Water said, “The summit has to be cancelled as it misleads people claiming that the ongoing privatisation is not privatisation in real. It promotes commodification of water, as the model for the state without even stating that the underlying theme is to generate profits from water.”Alleging that some senior bureaucrats were working towards evolving a variety of dubious policies to promote water privatisation, Kodihalli Chandrashekar, president of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, and Dalit Sangarsha Samithi activist N Venkatesh urged the government to cancel the event.Members of the Peoples’ Campaign for Right to Water demanded the government to dissociate itself from the summit, failing which they will stage protests.