Chennai: DMK president M. Karunanidhi on Sunday urged Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa to lead an all party delegation to New Delhi and exert pressure on the PM to protect Tamil Nadu’s riparian rights.
Karunanidhi said the CM should lead a delegation of MPs, MLAs and ministers to Delhi and exert political pressure to get Cauvery water from Karnataka released and the Cauvery management board constituted immediately.
Claiming that the four dams across Cauvery have a combined storage of 74.23tmcft and the water level at Mettur Stanley Reservoir had fallen by 2.9ft fall in the last three days, Karunanidhi said the state PWD minister should meet the Karnataka CM at the earliest and persuade him to release water as per distress sharing formula, which is the legally tenable solution during rain deficit period, and take steps to save the samba crops.
Quoting the Karnataka irrigation minister M.P. Patil as saying that the state had released water even without receiving a request from Tamil Nadu in compliance with the Cauvery tribunal award, Karunanidhi said that it may be clear from the minister's statement that Tamil Nadu government had not even asked Karnataka to release water.
