The Cauvery Water Management Authority won’t bring anything good to Tamil Nadu, MDMK general secretary Vaiko said here on Sunday.
Addressing mediapersons, he said the Centre, by constituting the Authority, had punished the State. If Tamil Nadu were to get a good and permanent solution to the Cauvery water sharing issue, the Supreme Court would have to re-hear the case. The case should be handled by a nine-judge Constitution Bench, as the verdict delivered by the Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had short-changed the State and buried justice, he said.
‘T.N. short-changed’
Many of the orders contained in the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s final award, pertaining to the safety of dams, decision on water release, Central Industrial Security Force protection for dams, etc. were not part of the Supreme Court’s order, he said.
He said CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami and his Cabinet colleagues were hailing the notification of the Cauvery Water Management Scheme by the Central government as a victory for the State, which was wrong. The truth was that Tamil Nadu had been short-changed and its water needs compromised, Mr. Vaiko said.
In the current scenario, Tamil Nadu would not be able to stop Karnataka from constructing a dam in Mekedatu, he claimed, adding that without water, the Cauvery delta districts would turn barren. As a consequence, farmers would be forced to sell their lands to corporations, which would then set up industries that were harmful to the environment, Mr. Vaiko said.
Stating that his party and other like-minded political parties were not opposed to industrialisation and employment generation, he said they were only against industries that posed harm to the environment.