Tamil Nadu All-Party Meet Seeks SC Intervention on Cauvery Water Dispute

Chennai: An all-party meeting, convened to protect the State's rights over the sharing of Cauvery river water on Tuesday with Chief Minister M K Stalin presiding over it, decided to move the Supreme Court to find a legal remedy to the imbroglio caused by the Karnataka government’s recalcitrant attitude in refusing to obey the orders of the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) on the release of water.

Addressing the meeting, attended by leaders of all political parties having representation in the State Assembly, Stalin said the government would uphold the rights of Cauvery delta farmers by taking all necessary actions based on the unanimous resolutions that include urging the Cauvery River Water Management Authority to put pressure on Karnataka to immediately release the water due for Tamil Nadu.

Another resolution condemned Karnataka’s refusal to abide by the orders of the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee that was set up on the basis of a Supreme Court judgment of February 16,2018, and the final verdict of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal to release one TMC water at Biligundlu every day from July 12 to 31.

The Chief Minister said that the neighbouring State not releasing water for Tamil Nadu's use despite it having a good storage and a favourable Southwest monsoon possibly bringing good rains was totally unacceptable.

The meeting was attended by State Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan, legal experts and leaders of all parties having representation in the Assembly.

Among them were VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan, S P Velumani and O S Manian of the AIADMK, K Selvaperunthagai, G K Mani of PMK, Karu Nagarajan and Karuppu Muruganandam of BJP, Nagai Malli of CPM, Thali Ramachandran of CPI, M H Jawahariullah of Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, E R Easwaran of KMDK and Velmurugan of TVK.

All the leaders were vocal in condemning the Karnataka government’s behavior and expressing complete support to the DMK government in all its endeavours to secure the due share of the State. Even the BJP leaders vowed to stand by the government to get the State’s rights.

Thirumvalavan wanted the a massive protest to be organized in the Cauvery delta to draw the attention of the Union Government and the Karnataka government on the State’s displeasure over the no-release of Cauvery water and also to meet the Prime Minister and prevail upon him to put pressure on Karnataka.

Recalling that he had urged Stalin to call for the all-party meeting to discuss the Cauvery tangle on June 13 itself, he said that a march was organized by parties like the VCK, DMK, CPI, CPM, MDMK in 2018 to demand the setting up of the CWRC when the Union Government was dragging its feet on doing it.

He said that it was unfortunate that Karnataka was not letting Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu despite it Kabini reservoir filled almost of the brim, 96 per cent of its capacity, and other dams too having substantial storage – Harangi 73%, Hemavathy 55% and Krishnaraja Sagar 54%.

Before passing the three resolutions, the meeting, held at the Secretariat, deliberated on a wide range of possible steps that could bring around the adamant Karnataka government.