Thanjavur: The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday asserted that the AIADMK government has protected farmers of the Cauvery delta by taking consistent steps in the Cauvery River Water dispute and also by stopping the methane project that would have turned the delta into a desert.
Campaigning for 18 AIADMK candidates for the Assembly constituencies in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts at a rally here, Jayalalithaa said that the Interim award of the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal given in June 1991 was gazetted by the Centre in December that year only by the efforts taken by her government.
The Final award was given on May 5, 2007. At that time DMK was in the UPA government at the centre and DMK Government was in the state. Yet, DMK had not taken any step for gazetting the final award or implementing it. Instead it was interested in getting plum ministries at the centre for its MPs’ and was caught in scams like 2G, she said.
“Mr M.Karunanidhi, the then Chief Minister could have brought pressure on the Central government to gazette the final award. Has he done that?” Jayalalithaa asked people. Moreover, Mr Karunanidhi betrayed Tamil Nadu people by withdrawing the case related to Cauvery waters filed by State government to please the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the AIADMK supremo charged, adding, it was only after her government came back to power in 2011 that steps were taken to approach the Apex court and get the Tribunal’s Final award gazetted on February 19, 2013.
