Cauvery issue: Ruling party to hold protest fast April 3

Chennai: Toughening its stand against the Centre on the Cauvery issue, the AIADMK on Friday announced “a massive fasting protest” by its cadres on April 3 in all the district headquarters “to condemn the Centre for not constituting the Cauvery Management Board despite the Supreme Court order”. This is the first time the ruling party and its government have taken on the Centre on any issue even as the Opposition parties, particularly the DMK, have been accusing them of being subservient to the BJP regime post-Jaya. 

“Centre’s recalcitrant procrastination despite the Supreme Court on February 16 setting a six-week deadline for constituting the CMB and making it clear that it was its final order on the Cauvery issue, has caused untold misery and mental agony”, said a statement issued by the AIADMK headquarters here late evening. It also said the protest-fast was aimed at pressuring the Centre to constitute the CMB without further delay.

Earlier in the day, deputy CM and AIADMK coordinator O. Panneerselvam had announced at a mass-wedding function in Madurai that the protest-fast would be held on April 2. 

The agitation would “shake up entire India”, but would be conducted in peaceful manner without disrupting normal life, he said while recalling the various measures undertaken by late Jayalalithaa during her tenure as the CM, such as the legal battle she initiated in 2011 to obtain the Central gazetting of the Cauvery Tribunal Award in 2013.  

“Cauvery is the livelihood right of Tamil Nadu. Our strident voice will continue to ring for ensuring we do not lose that right. The AIADMK members will hold protest-fast in all the district headquarters in Tamil Nadu on April 2 to pressure the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Management Board”, OPS said. 

Party sources said the agitation date got shifted to the next day, April 3, to complete the huge task of distributing the organising task among the functionaries in the 51 AIADMK districts across the state. 

Speaking at the same mass-marriages function, Chief Minister K. Palaniswami rubbished the Opposition charge that the AIADMK and its government had not done enough to pressure the Centre to constitute the CMB.

Pointing out that the AIADMK MPs had paralysed the Parliament proceedings with their agitation for CMB, he said, “We have created history by halting Parliament work for 17 days for a state issue”. 

Meanwhile, April 2 turned out to be an important date on the DMK’s Cauvery calendar, as the party’s working president M.K.Stalin has convened an all-party meet on that day to discuss strategy for getting the CMB formed.