Wait till March 29 on Cauvery issue: Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam tells Opposition

CHENNAI:Joining issue with Leader of Opposition and DMK working president M K Stalin over the Cauvery water sharing row, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Monday asserted that the AIADMK government would exhibit the same firmness shown by the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in winning the rights of Tamil Nadu and that the efforts of Stalin would not succeed in creating an impression that the government was doing nothing over the Cauvery Management Board.

Replying to the issue raised by Stalin and Congress leader K R Ramasamy during the zero hour in the Assembly, the Deputy Chief Minister said, “Still there is time left for honouring the Supreme Court verdict. Let us wait till March 29. If nothing happens, we (all parties) will sit together and take the decision on what to do next.”

Panneerselvam said in the past one week, the Lok Sabha proceedings were stalled by the AIADMK MPs. This is unprecedented in the history of Tamil Nadu as at no point of time, Tamil Nadu MPs have stalled Parliament for one week on a particular issue.  

Referring to Stalin’s view that Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami should emulate his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu in supporting the no-confidence motion against the NDA government at the Centre, Panneerselvam said, “Stalin should not try to draw a link between the issue of Andhra Pradesh seeking special status for that State and the Cauvery issue of Tamil Nadu.”

Earlier, raising the issue, Stalin said though the NDA government would not fall even if the no-confidence motion was taken up, the Chief Minister should still extend support to the no-confidence motion as a measure of exerting pressure on the Central government.