CHENNAI: Although the momentum on protests for Cauvery Management Board was lost after the announcement of bypolls to three constituencies, DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin is turning the issue into a poll plank by blaming its rival AIADMK for failing to bring all the parties together on a political platform to exert pressure on the centre.
Even before starting the campaign for the bypolls, Stalin promised that the situation on the Cauvery dispute would change if the DMK won the Assembly bypolls. During his campaign at Aravakurichi, he took up the issue of Centre’s refusal to set up the Cauery Management Board and blamed the ruling party for not exerting political pressure on the centre through all-party meetings or Assembly resolutions.
Of the three seats, Cauvery is connected to Aravakurichi and Thanjavur, which lie in the delta area. Aravakurichi, a water starved area, is hoping to get drinking water from the Cauvery integrated drinking water scheme, besides needing it for cultivation. Besides, sand quarrying on the Cauvery bed is being opposed by farmers and social activists, as it would lead to depletion of ground water and cultivation.
Stalin, during his campaign, addressed both the issues, promising to bring water to Aravakurichi from the Cauvery integrated water scheme, besides asserting to hold protests to close all the illegal sand quarries in the area. In Thanjavur, the most hopeful seat for the DMK, Stalin is expected to focus more on the Cauvery dispute and the formation of CMB. The AIADMK is hitting back with allegations on the DMK for not doing anything to gazette the tribunal's final order in 2007 and recalling that the DMK government withdrew a case against Karnataka on the issue during its regime in 1974. It is recalling Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's achievement of gazetting the tribunal order by getting a Supreme Court direction.
However, both parties are likely to retain their support through their Cauvery rhetoric as the farmers want to stay neutral between the two parties and their resentment is aimed at the BJP alone. Since, the AIADMK is the ruling party, which has the power to take action on the dispute, farmers unions are tightlipped about supporting any of the parties.
Stalin urges state govt to allot funds for judiciary:
Citing the Madras High Court's observation asking the state government if it faced any financial emergency, Leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin on Friday appealed to the state government to allocate the required funds for judiciary and regulate the state;s financial management. Stalin accused Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam of not attempting to improve the financial condition of the state and said the state's debts had gone up to over four lakh crores. Now, the court itself had condemned the government and had spoken of financial emergency in Tamil Nadu.
The state had not spent Rs 150 crores allocated for the judiciary by the Centre and sent it back. The state government had not sanctioned more than hundred projects for the judiciary. The government's action is an open challenge to the judicial administration, Stalin said. Several cases remain stagnated before the courts which are trying to dispose the petitions at the earliest. But, AIADMK government's functioning had affected infrastructure development in the judiciary and this amounted to placing obstacles in rule of law, he said.
Tamil Nadu is stagnating in economic growth and in the list of states based on the criteria of ease of business, it had been pushed to the 18th place. Besides, it had gone down to the 20th place in agricultural growth, the DMK treasurer said. The government had not allotted funds for most of the welfare schemes announced by it and now it is known that the same applies to allocation for judiciary, he added.
