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Centre scuttling CMB formation, says MK Stalin

The Centre had not set up the Cauvery Management Board despite the Supreme Court order and it was delaying it for political reasons, he charged.

Chennai: DMK working president M.K. Stalin on Wednesday expressed shock over the Centre’s arguments in the Supreme Court. He said the arguments had been made with the malafide intention of disrupting the final verdict of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and altering it in favour of Karnataka which faces Assembly elections next year.

The Centre had not set up the Cauvery Management Board despite the Supreme Court order and it was delaying it for political reasons, he charged. The arguments show that the Centre is ready to sacrifice the interests of Tamil Nadu farmers for its narrow objective of facing Assembly elections in Karnataka, Stalin said.

He pointed out that the Union government’s counsel had repeated the argument of Karnataka that the verdict of the tribunal is subject to review. He asserted that the responsibility of the Centre is to form the CMB and not to review the tribunal’s verdict.

The Centre, which accepted the Supreme Court’s order to form the CMB, performed a volte face later and refused to form the body, he said. The Supreme Court itself had questioned the Union government on its stand of not forming the CMB during the hearing on Tuesday, he pointed out.

Agriculture had been severely affected in the delta districts and farmers are committing suicide, but the Centre is still arguing that setting up of CMB needed the approval of Parliament and the tribunal order did not have guidelines on sharing water during distress years.

The Centre is trying to paralyse the final verdict of the Cauvery tribunal and it had openly joined hands with Karnataka, which is opposing the CMB.

“Why the Centre is raising so many questions after the tribunal order had been notified in the gazette?” Stalin asked and added that the tribunal order had specified the monthly quota of water to be released to TN.

Since the Supreme Court itself had condemned the Centre, the Union government should set up the board and should not aid Karnataka’s attempts to paralyse the tribunal verdict. The people of Tamil Nadu would not forgive the BJP government for trying to alter the final verdict, he warned.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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