Chennai: The simmering water rows between Tamil Nadu and its neighbours echoed in the state Assembly with the opposition DMK staging a walk out on Tuesday after the ruling AIADMK rejected the opposition demand for an all party meeting on the disputes, besides blaming the DMK for the present situation.
Leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin, brought a call attention motion on the issues of Kerala proposing a dam across Siruvani river and Karnataka refusing to share Cavuery water with Tamil Nadu.
He demanded an Assembly resolution, besides a panel of all party MPs and MLAs to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press the Centre on river water issues. Stalin said Kerala is trying to build a dam across Siruvani unmindful of the harm caused to Tamil Nadu and wanted the state to press the Centre to abandon the permission given for environmental impact study.
Citing the protests of farmers throughout Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, he said thousands of farmers are protesting to protect their livelihood. Congress Legislature Party leader K.R Ramasamy also wanted an all-party delegation to press the Centre on the issues.
Replying to the debate, PWD Edappadi K. Palaniswami said Karnataka had not supplied adequate water to Tamil Nadu till this month starting June. Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa had written to both Karnataka and the Centre, besides filing an interlocutory petition in the Supreme Court. The State's plea would come up for hearing in the Apex Court on September 2, he added.
He cited data from the 1970s and said water was not released from Mettur dam at the appointed annual date during several years for the Samba crop even during the DMK regime. The Minister also charged the DMK with politicising the issue.
On the Siruvani issue too, he attacked the DMK and said a tripartite meeting on May 10, 1969 had decided that Kerala would utilise 2.5 TMC feet of water in the Bhavani Basin. The meeting was attended by the then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, the then Kerala Chief Minister and Union Minister for Power and Irrigation. He said such utilisation was intended to irrigate Attappady valley lands after construction of Siruvani dam and its "impact" was being felt now on the issue.
He recalled that on August 27, the Chief Minister had sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's urgent intervention to withdraw the central committee's recommendation for environmental impact assessment study. After the minister’s reply, Stalin said the government had not given a proper reply to the DMK demands and led the DMK’s walkout from the House.
