Chennai: Chief Minster J. Jayalalithaa on Saturday said that DMK chief M. Karunanidhi was making half baked comments on issues over which he had no grasp.
She was responding to his statement regarding the Kerala government opposing the interlinking of the Pampa and Achankoil rivers in Kerala with the Vaipar river in Tamil Nadu and his remarks on the ownership of four dams, including the Mullaiperiyar. “Without consulting the officials concerned, Karunanidhi releases statements that do not have any coherence and are contradictory,” Jayalalithaa said in a release.
She accused him of betraying Tamil Nadu’s interests when his party was part of the UPA and questioned his locus standi to talk on the state’s rights while expressing confidence that the NDA government would constitute the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) as well as ensure that the state was able to raise the water level in the Mullaiperiyar dam to 142 feet soon after the SC-mandated supervisory committee was constituted.
“As far as the Mullaiperiyar dam is concerned, the Supreme Court verdict delivered on May 7, 2014 has clarified that although the dam is physically located in Thekkady district of Kerala, its ownership remains with Tamil Nadu and the state will be maintaining the dam,” Jayalalithaa said.
She pointed out that the state firmly believed that the present dispensation at the Centre would constitute the CMB to monitor the flow of Cauvery river.
Jayalalithaa pointed out that earlier in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she had taken up the issue of setting up CMB as an integral part of the final order of the Cauvery tribunal, which specified the quantum of water to be shared among the riparian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry.
