Move contempt plea against Union Ministry: ryots

THANJAVUR

Waste no more time to file a contempt plea before the Supreme Court against the Union Ministry of Water Resources and River Development for its failure to adhere to the apex court’s ruling on implementing the final verdict of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, political parties and farmers have urged the State Government.

The Supreme Court’s six week deadline on formulating a scheme to implement the verdict is ending shortly with no such body in sight. A supervisory panel is nothing but a sham and is clearly aimed at meeting the apex court mandate less than half way through. It has more to do with its Karnataka political compulsions rather than rendering justice to farmers in the riparian states. In this situation, the State Government must immediately move a contempt petition before the Supreme Court against the Union Ministry, K. Balakrishnan, State Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist) told The Hindu here on Tuesday.

The CPI (M) leader also urged the ruling dispensation in the State not to dilute the collective will of the people in the Cauvery issue by submitting to the will and pleasure of the Central Government ``at least in the crucial Cauvery issue’’.

The State Government must file a contempt plea before the Supreme Court immediately as the deadline has nearly ended without the order’s comprehensive implementation. Besides that, the State Government must apply all pressure on the Central Government to formulate the Cauvery Management Board. Already the backing of the Opposition parties and the people is assured. Now, it is the State Government’s responsibility to make full use of the support to pressure the Centre, said R. Mutharasan, State Secretary, Communist Party of India.

The Centre’s actions reveal that not the Election Commission of India but only the BJP’s political ambitions in Karnataka that is standing in the way of CMB constitution, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader Thol Thirumavalavan said here on Tuesday.

Echoing his views, Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi leader T. Velmurugan who was also here, remarked that the Centre was continually cheating the State in several crucial issues including the Cauvery case. That is why even after the apex court verdict, the Centre was not acting justly, he added.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Farmers Joint Action Council Coordinator D. Gurusamy, along with a slew of state farmers associations leaders has written to Supreme Court Registrar General expressing fear that the February 16 verdict might not be implemented by the Centre and Karnataka and urged the apex court to suo motu proceed against the ``erring’’ Union Government, ensure that its orders were adhered to and without any bias rights of the lower riparian state farmers were protected.