Chennai: Slamming DMK president Karunanidhi for his ‘half-baked’ knowledge and his misleading statements on interstate water sharing issues between Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Chief Mininster Jayalalithaa on Monday said Karunanidhi was exposing his ignorance on the issue by releasing wrong statements hoping to get political mileage.
“Karunanidhi is unable to tolerate the growing clout of AIADMK headed by me. These statements are a reflection of his jealousy,” Jayalalithaa said in a release. With specific reference to a statement made by Karunanidhi regarding the AIADMK supremo’s silence when the National Register of Large Dams had listed Mullaiperiyar, Parambikulam, Peruvariapallam and Thunakadavu dams in Kerala state in 2012 when she was the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa retorted that it was because she was the CM of the state and had raised this issue ‘relentlessly’ with the Union ministry of water resources that the National Register had modified its records stating that all the above mentioned dams were maintained and operated by TN.
“Besides, it is due to my sustained effort that all these four dams including Mullaiperiyar are listed among the dams that are owned and maintained by Tamil Nadu although they are present in Kerala as an additional note,” Jayalalithaa said.
“Going even further, our petition to the Dam Safety Organisation to list these four dams as owned by TN has also been accepted. The injustice done to TN by the DMK government was fixed by me,” the CM said in a strongly-worded statement. The issue has come to the forefront after Kerala opposed to inter-linking of two of its rivers with TN’s Vaipar.
Referring to the DMK chief’s statement, Jayalalithaa said that Karunanidhi neither understood her explanation nor referred to national registers on dams. “Even SC judgment of May 7 affirmed that TN owned and operated Mullaiperiyar dam though it was in Kerala. Besides, no official document says that Kerala owned all these four dams,” she said.
