Chennai: State Water Resources Minister Durai Murugan lashed out at Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami for accusing the DMK government of maintaining a silence on the Kerala’s government’s moves to construct a check dam across River Silanthi at Peruguda in Idukki district’s Devikulam taluk.
The Tamil Nadu government had already urged the Cauvery Water Management Authority to closely monitor and supervise the minor irrigation works carried out by both Kerala and Karnataka on the Cauvery basin, Durai Murugan said denying Palaniswami’s charge that the government was a mute spectator.
In a statement on Monday, the Water Resources Minister said that keeping a discreet silence on crucial issues was the habit of Palaniswami and averred that the DMK government would not keep quiet if the rights of the State over the sharing of Cauvery waters were violated by Kerala or Karnataka.
The issue raised by Palaniswami had been taken up with the Authority at the 29th meeting held on April 4 and the government would leave no stone unturned in getting justice, even if it was to take the legal course, he said.
He said that Palaniswami was the one who gave up 14.75 TMC feet of water due for the State through the order of the Cauvery disputes tribunal.
With the eruption of the River Silanthi controversy adding to the list of water sharing disputes that the State is now facing with its neighbours, opposition parties blamed the DMK government for keeping silent and not taking up the issue with the CPM government, led by Pinayari Vijayan.
Joining hands with the AIADMK general secretary Palaniswami, who raked up the issue through a post on X on Sunday, BJP State president K Annamalai and PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss accused the State government of not standing up to protect the rights of the State on Monday.
Annamalai alleged that the State government had not resisted the initiatives of Karnataka to build a dam across River Cauvery at Mekedatu or Andhra Pradesh constructing a dam across River Palar earlier and was once again a silent spectator to Kerala taking steps to block the waters of River Silanthi, which is a tributary of River Amaravati.
Attributing the silence of Chief Minister M K Stalin to his political compulsions in keeping the INDIA coalition intact, Annamalai, in a message on X, said that the DMK government had reneged on its promise to build 10,000 check dams in the last 3 years ad that had led to the State unable to save the excess water during the rains that were going waste into the sea.
PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss said water flow in the River Amaravati, which irrigates 55,000 acres of land in Dindigul and Karur districts, will deplete if the dam came across River Silanthi. He wanted the state government not to give up on the rights of the riparian State in the tail end of the Cauvery basin.
Palaniswami reiterated the charges again on Monday when he visited the residence of former Coimbatore Mayor T Malarvan, who passed away recently. He told the media that since the State’s water needs were dependent on rivers flowing from the neighbouring States, Tamil Nadu was being shortchanged.
