Tamil Nadu ready for talks on water sharing

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the Assembly on Thursday that Tamil Nadu had  agreed to hold  bilateral talks to review the water sharing agreement under the Parambikulam-Aliyar project (PAP).

Mr Vijayan told Mr Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Congress, who gave a notice for an adjournment motion,  that  his Tamil Nadu counterpart Mr K. Palaniswami had  responded positively to  the letter seeking discussion on the PAP.

It was after a long time that Tamil Nadu had come up for such  talks, he said and  added that it was, however, continuing to violate the agreement on the release of water to Kerala.  Following the  intervention of the government, the state  had received more  water this year, he said.

The central government had said at a recent meeting of the National Water Development Authority (NWDA) that a decision on linking Pampa-Achanko-vil with Vypar river in Tamil Nadu would be taken only after getting the consent of the state.

The closure of the Cauvery cell  in New Delhi was related to official work deployment. It would not affect any of the pending inter-state water dispute cases,  including Mullaperiyar, Cauvery water sharing and  Neyyar, he said.

Mr Vijayan,  who rejected the Opposition charges that the decision to close the cell was ‘mysterious,’ said a new committee had  been formed under the chairmanship of former water resources secretary V.J. Kurien with technical experts as members. Two nodal officers in the law and irrigation departments will coordinate the cases and ensure technical support.

Mr Radhakrishnan  said that the water cell  was functioning in the Kerala House in Delhi to give technical support to deal with inter-state water disputes. Its closure  was suspected to be under the influence of some ‘external force,’ he said. With Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan rejecting the adjournment notice,  the Opposition staged a walkout.