Date:25/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/25/stories/2008112557670100.htm

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Tamil Nadu politicising Neyyar issue: Minister

Special Correspondent

N.K. Premachandran accuses Tamil Nadu of “deviating from the facts.”

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran has accused Tamil Nadu of “deviating from the facts to politicise the issue of sharing the Neyyar waters.”

Replying to a submission from R. Selvaraj, MLA, in the Assembly on Monday, he said the Neyyar in Thiruvananthapuram district was not an inter-State river. At no point in the past had Tamil Nadu come up with the case that it was an inter-State river.

In one of the clauses listed in a draft agreement the State had sent to Tamil Nadu earlier this year, it was proposed that the water diverted across the inter-State border would be against the “realisation of a consideration not less than the expenses incurred” by Kerala.

Kerala had no intention to fix a price for the water given to Tamil Nadu. It was just a matter of courtesy that the beneficiary State shared the expenses.

The facts were being misrepresented by Tamil Nadu politicians to whip up emotions in that State in the context of the approaching Lok Sabha elections, he alleged.

“Let this consideration be just a nominal sum of Re.1. Let it be a token of goodwill. Why twist the facts,” he asked.

Kanyakumari bandh

Certain political parties have called a bandh in Kanyakumari district on November 28, misrepresenting the issue before the people of the border district, he said. “Politicising such issues is not a healthy practice,” he added.

He said Tamil Nadu had taken the position that 12 square kilometres of the Neyyar catchments were in its territory. Neither at the time of the States’ reorganisation nor at any other point subsequently had Tamil Nadu come up with this claim. Kerala will not accept it, he said.

Kerala is willing to give Neyyar waters for irrigating fields in Vilavankode taluk in Kanyakumari district depending upon water availability, he said.

The Assembly passed a resolution in October 2006 approving it. Mr. Premachandran advised Tamil Nadu to enter into an agreement with Kerala to facilitate the water transfer.