Chennai: The DMK president M K Stalin said here on Thursday that his party MPs’ in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will oppose the new Bill, reportedly approved by the Central Cabinet today, to constitute a ‘Single Tribunal’ for all inter-state water disputes by amending the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act.
In a statement here, Mr Stalin said this move by the BJP government now to revive a similar Bill that got lapsed in 2017 as many State governments including Tamil Nadu had opposed it in the Rajya Sabha then, now is a matter of huge concern and raised critical doubts.
This bill came as another ‘anti-federal move’ by the Narendra Modi regime in line with the latter’s slogan, ‘One Nation, one poll, one ration card, one power grid’ and the like,
Mr Stalin said and asked whether it was proper on the Central government’s part to dilute the federal character of the Indian constitution as conceived by our founding fathers.
The proposed provision to do away with the need to publish in the Central Government Gazette the awards handed down by inter-State river water tribunals was particularly of serious concern,
Mr Stalin said, pointing to Karnataka’s intransigence in not complying with even the Cauvery Water Management Authority’s directive this year, a body set up on the basis of the Cauvery Water Tribunal’s Final Award and the subsequent Supreme court judgment. Under such circumstances the clause do even do away with publishing in the gazette, that gives an Award a stamp of final authority, is fraught with serious consequences as it will not help to resolve inter-state river water disputes permanently, he said.
Mr Stalin said the new bill thus raised doubts whether “by design” at the draft stage, there was an intention to ensure inter-state river water disputes remained permanently unresolved. Such clauses need to be studied carefully and debated thoroughly, urged Mr Stalin said, adding, DMK MPs’ will raise these issues in Parliament.
Meanwhile, he said the State Government should also immediately take up the issue with the Centre and pressure the BJP regime to ensure that the Final Award of the
Cauvery disputes Tribunal which has been published in the Central gazette was not affected in any way by the new bill for a single Tribunal.
