Erode: Even as the DMK’s two-day zonal conference on Sunday in a resolution called upon the ruling AIADMK to exert more pressure on the Central government to immediately constitute the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and even utilize the ‘opportunity provided by the no-trust motion brought in Parliament by Andhra Pradesh MPs’ to secure the state’s interests in the Cauvery issue, party’s working president M K Stalin warned of massive agitation by DMK if Tamil Nadu’s interests were ignored.
“We will not accept any alternative to the CMB as directed by the Supreme Court,” thundered Mr Stalin as he addressed the conclave here in the evening, referring to the Centre mulling only a nine-member monitoring committee to oversee water-sharing among the basin states.
Mr. Stalin said the Centre’s proposal to form a 9-member panel was “useless” and was being put forward only for political gain with the upper riparian state Karnataka going to Assembly polls soon.
Urging the AIADMK to oppose the proposal, he, citing the special resolution said, “the state government should not give up our rights over Cauvery; or else DMK will launch a massive, prolonged agitation over the issue.”
Recalling former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee having formed a Cauvery Regulatory Authority when M Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Stalin said then opposition leader J Jayalalithaa had criticized it as a toothless body. “Delta farmers have still not forgotten it”, he said.
Stating that Tamil Nadu should pressurize the Centre, which has been delaying formation of CMB giving lame reasons, Stalin said despite political differences, the DMK has been lending full support to the state government over the issue.
The CMB and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee should be set up in six weeks from February 16 when the Apex court gave its verdict in the Cauvery appeals case, he emphasized.
As many as 49 other resolutions were passed at the conference. The key ones included the DMK resolving to resist “by democratic means” any bid by Hindutva forces to whip up communal/linguistic passions, condemning the desecration of Periyar’s statues in backdrop of the ‘Ram Rath Yatra’, exempting Tamil Nadu students from Neet, scrapping hydro-carbon projects in Cauvery delta areas, not to privatise Salem Steel, mitigating GST hardships and implementing region-specific schemes like Avinashi-Athikdavu water project.
