CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisami on Friday charged that the DMK's failure to form the Cauvery Management Board when it was in power in the State and at the Centre is the major reason for the prevailing drought situation and suffering of farmers in the Cauvery delta. When Leader of Opposition MK Stalin, in his speech in the discussion on the state budget in the Assembly, charged the AIADMK government with failing to get water from the Cauvery, the Chief Minister pointed out that the DMK was in power both at the Centre and the State when the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal was pronounced and it failed to form the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee.
When DMK deputy leader in the Assembly K. Duraimurugan said a tribunal order should not be gazetted immediately and one year time should be given to register the objections of parties concerned, the Chief Minister said the DMK was in power at the Centre till 2014 and it did nothing to publish the order in the gazette. However, Leader of Opposition MK Stalin, who intervened said if the DMK had failed to form the CMB, the AIADMK government should have taken steps to do so. “What was the AIADMK government doing in the last five years?” he asked.
Palanisami said the AIADMK government is fighting the issue in the Supreme Court and a verdict is expected in a few months. He also said it was the AIADMK government which raised the water storage level of Mullaiperiyar dam from 136 feet to 142 feet.
