The Hindu : T.N. urges Centre to take over dams

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 21, 2002

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T.N. urges Centre to take over dams

By Our Special Correspondent

Chennai Sept. 20. The Tamil Nadu Government was today forced to drop a controversial resolution at an all-party meeting here, demanding the dismissal of the Karnataka Government over the Cauvery issue, amid a walk-out by the Congress and objections from major political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party.

However, the meeting, in a near unanimous voice, asked the Centre to take over the dams in Karnataka to ensure the release of Cauvery waters due to Tamil Nadu. It also adopted a resolution urging the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, to direct the Karnataka Government to immediately release the legitimate share of the waters to Tamil Nadu.

" Since the mechanism for implementing the orders of the highest judicial body of the country cannot be left to the mercy of a rival State Government," the Centre should amend the rules of the Cauvery River Authority for taking over the reservoirs in Karnataka, the resolution said. Significantly, the main opposition, DMK, boycotted the meeting protesting the recent "humiliating remarks" heaped by the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, on the Opposition over the Cauvery issue. At the four-hour meeting, the first this year on the Cauvery issue, Ms. Jayalalithaa accused the Karnataka Government of enacting a drama through "stage-managed protests" and "attempted suicides" in the Kabini reservoir for stalling the release of water to Tamil Nadu. Cauvery was an inter-State river and not Karnataka's property, she said. But, the State had heeded neither the Supreme Court directive to release 1.25 tmc ft of water every day nor the Cauvery River Authority's fiat of discharging 9000 cusecs.

And, taking the gathering of the leaders of 42 parties and farmers' forum by surprise, the Chief Minister read out a set of draft resolutions which included the contentious demand of invoking Article 356 against the Krishna Government for its "unconstitutional acts." She then threw open the floor to the Congress to discuss the draft. Fiercely opposing the demand for the removal of the Congress regime in Karnataka, the State Congress president, E.V.K.S. Elangovan, said while his party was keen that the delta farmers should get the Cauvery waters, asking for the removal of another State Government was improper and unacceptable. Only if the resolution drafted with a "vendetta" was dropped, the Congress would stay on at the meeting, he said.

However, Ms. Jayalaithaa maintained that she would go by majority views, triggering exchanges and the two-member Congress team, including the former Union Minister, S. R. Balasubramaniam, walked out. The ouster demand had few takers as almost all the State party leaders, including the CPI secretary, R. Nallakannu, the CPI (M) secretary, N. Varadarajan, the BJP president, S. P. Kirupanidhi and the MDMK presidium chairman, L. Ganesan, asked the Chief Minister to shelve the resolution.

The PMK president, G. K. Mani, said Tamil Nadu should ask Mr. Vajpayee to invoke Art. 355 and issue a warning to Karnataka.

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