Chennai: In what is seen as a last-ditch effort to build pressure on the BJP government at the Centre in the wake of the apex court deadline inching closer, the
Tamil Nadu assembly on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution demanding that the Centre set up a Cauvery Management Board and a Cauvery Water Regulation Committee within six weeks as per the Supreme Court’s February 16 verdict.
DMK working president
M K Stalin said the legislators should resign en masse – and DMK members are ready to resign – in the event of the Centre failing to constitute the regulatory mechanisms for water release from Karnataka reservoirs.
The move comes in the backdrop of Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah opposing the formation of the board as the state would lose its control over its reservoirs. He is to meet his MPs in New Delhi on Friday to exert pressure on Centre against constituting the board.
“Tamil Nadu assembly urges the Centre to constitute the board and committee vested with all powers to effectively implement the final award of Cauvery tribunal,” said chief minister
Edappadi K Palaniswami. It was endorsed by the treasury and the the opposition DMK, Congress and the
IUML through a voice vote in a 30-minute special sitting on Thursday afternoon, while the House convened in the morning for the budget session. Soon after, Palaniswami forwarded the resolution to PM Narendra Modi and requested him to direct the water resources ministry to notify the mechanisms.
While the apex court directed the Centre to notify a ‘scheme’ for the implementation of the tribunal order, the
Tamil Nadu government maintained that the scheme was nothing but “machinery” to implement the order under Section 6(A)(2) of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956. “Four weeks lapsed without any positive outcome, the farmers and people of Tamil Nadu, who have been suffering for more than four decades, are deeply anguished,” the CM said, seeking a positive response from Modi. Failing to get an audience with PM for all party and farmers delegation, the
AIADMK government heeded to the requests of opposition in getting the House convened for a special sitting in the afternoon.
Earlier, opposition leader M K Stalin said it was not the time to blame each other as the affected were farmers and people of the state. Karnataka never released the quantum as prescribed in the interim nor final award of the tribunal, and court. It remained firm in not meeting the rightful demands of TN farmers and violated the rule of law, he said.
“PM has not given an audience to all party delegation. Democracy is in crisis,” he said, condemning the Centre for delaying the process of constituting the board. The Centre would face the wrath of people of Tamil Nadu if it showed disregard to the resolution, he added.
