Chennai: Pandemonium In Assembly Over Gas Leak, Mekedatu
Several other leaders in the Assembly, including DMDK general secretary Premalatha Vijaykanth, objected to the demand for changes in the resolution on Mekedatu: Reports
CHENNAI: The State Assembly plunged into pandemonium after AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami’s demand for a discussion on the ammonia gas leak at a shrimp processing factory in Thiruvallur district that killed five women migrant workers and sent scores of others to hospital and his objection to the amendment made to the House resolution against the construction of a dam across River Cauvery at Mekedatu were rejected by the Speaker J C D Prabhakar on Monday.
As soon as the Assembly met, Palaniswami raised the issue over Sunday’s gas leak tragedy at St Peter and Paul Sea foods factory at Kanigai village in Uthukottai taluk and demanded a discussion on it. But the Speaker rejected it as the government would come out with a statement on it in the House under Rule 110. Making the statement, Labour Minister J Mohammed Farvaz said Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay had awarded a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to each of the victims of the gas leak.
All the 74 persons – 70 women and four men – who were in the factory premises were affected by the tragedy, he said, adding that the government would also bear the expenses for taking the bodies of the victims to their homes and conducting their funerals.
Palaniswami also objected to the inclusion of a demand for a tribunal on the Mekedatu dispute in the resolution passed last week in the House saying that the demand based on suggestion made by Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin was not informed to the members and said that there was no need for a separate tribunal.
But the Speaker said that the resolution on Mekedatu has already been passed and that it would stand as such, triggering a uproarious protest from the AIADMK members who stormed out of the Assembly, raising slogans, with only four members of the party remaining it’s the seats in the House – S P Velumani, Natham Vishwanthan, Ravi Manohar and R Rakesh.
Several other leaders in the Assembly, including DMDK general secretary Premalatha Vijaykanth, objected to the demand for changes in the resolution on Mekedatu. Minister for PWD and Sports, Aadhav Arjuna said that all parties in the State were unanimously opposed to the proposed construction of a dam across Cauvery and the demand for the tribunal was aimed at monitoring if work on the proposed project was undertaken.
He said he was addressing the concerns of the people of Tamil Nadu and not just that of the AIADMK members alone and that the Cauvery dispute was very important for the TVK.
Addressing the Assembly, Minister for Water Resources and Rural Development N Anand said that the TVK government would make no compromise on protecting the traditional rights of Tamil Nadu and the interests of the farmers in the State. He listed the various measures taken by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay to ensure that Karnataka did not take up the dam building project.
The Minister said that the State would not keep quiet by closing its eyes when the Karnataka government and the Union Government were making covert attempts to build the dam and the demand for a tribunal was only to establish the State’s right over the surplus waters of River Cauvery and that the setting up of an exclusive tribunal would not affect Tamil Nadu.
Anand also briefed the Assembly of the developments in the State’s fight for establishing the right in various forums and how Karnataka was trying to construct the dam and the dangers behind the Cauvery Water Management Authority not rejecting the detailed project report (DPR) submitted by Karnataka on the construction of the dam but only returning the DPR back to the Cauvery Water Commission (CWC).