Date:04/01/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/01/04/stories/2003010406170400.htm

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

I will attend CRA meet: Jayalalithaa

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI JAN. 3. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, today said she would definitely attend a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority.

"We are eagerly awaiting the meeting date and whenever it is convened we will attend", she said during an informal chat with reporters at the Chennai airport on her return from Hyderabad, by a special aircraft, after a ten-day visit.

Ms. Jayalalithaa said she had written twice to the Prime Minister urging him to convene the meeting. "I think the first letter was written on December 5 and very recently I wrote another letter".

(A Bangalore report quoting the Prime Minister said the CRA meet was convened for January 13).

Asked about a joint strategy to nab the bandit, Veerappan, the Chief Minister said the Centre had held a meeting yesterday. Tamil Nadu officers especially the chief of the Special Task Force made a request for some specialised equipment and the Centre said everything would be made available within 15 days.

To a question whether there was any political significance in her recent meeting with the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandra Babu Naidu, Ms. Jayalalithaa, in a lighter vein, said, "he himself has said there was nothing like that".

Elaborating, she said Chennai might face water shortage after March. "The water level was only one-third in the reservoirs which catered for Chennai. The present storage would meet the needs only till March-end. Before the shortage "becomes a major crisis, I met the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and requested him to supply water from April to Chennai city".

When her attention was drawn to the Prime Minister's "Goa musings" and his new definition of Hindutva, Ms. Jayalalithaa said: "Like any other citizen of India, the Prime Minister has also the right to express his views. I don't wish to make any further comment on that". She refused to take further questions on this issue.

Asked whether the AIADMK was getting closer to the BJP, she replied: "It is some people's imagination".

Did not her presence at the swearing-in of Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister send out a signal that the AIADMK was getting closer to the BJP? The Chief Minsiter said : "This is a gesture of goodwill. Mr. Modi invited me to his swearing-in and I went. That's all". When a reporter said Mr. Modi did not invite National Democratic Alliance allies, the Chief Minister shot back: "You must ask him that".

"I think we are already playing a very important role in national politics" was her reply to another question on the AIADMK general council urging her to play a more important role in national politics. Sasikalaa, close friend of the Chief Minister, accompanied her.