Date:26/07/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/26/stories/2007072659780700.htm

New Delhi

PM has a plan to resolve dam issue: CM

Special Correspondent

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has formulated a plan to resolve the dispute relating to the Mullaperiyar dam between Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Disclosing this to presspersons here on Wednesday, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said the Prime Minister had indicated this to him when he apprised him of the various issues confronting the State. He said he brought to the notice of Dr. Singh the reports coming from Kerala on the proposal to construct a dam in the place of Mullaperiyar dam.

He said the construction of a new dam would harm the interests of the Tamil Nadu farmers and requested him to intervene immediately.

Mr. Karunanidhi presented documentary evidence to the Prime Minister on how Kerala was acting against the interests of Tamil Nadu farmers. The Prime Minister, he said, informed him that he had worked out a plan and that he would discuss it with the Chief Ministers of both the States with a view to hammering out a solution.

Mr. Karunanidhi said he also brought to the notice of the Prime Minister the petitions filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the Supreme Court challenging the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.

He requested the Prime Minister that pending adjudication of the petitions by the Supreme Court, the Centre should ensure that the interests of Tamil Nadu were protected. When it was pointed out to him that that the Tribunal had declined to take up clarificatory applications in view of the pendency of the petitions in the Supreme Court, he said all the materials furnished to the Tribunal would be placed before the Supreme Court for necessary relief. Mr. Karunanidhi requested the Prime Minister to convene a meeting of the Chief Minister to discuss the issue of linking of waters. When the Prime Minister wanted to know whether all the ChiefMinisters would agree to linking of rivers, he said the Prime Minister should call those Chief Ministers who were interested in it.

He wanted Dr. Singh to take steps for making Tamil as the official court language in the Madras High Court.

He told him that the Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed a resolution for making Tamil as the court language and this resolution should be given effect to at the earliest.