CHENNAI: Maintaining that the Tamil Nadu government will take all necessary steps to secure its rights over Cauvery river water after consulting legal experts, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday said the Supreme Court observation on Cauvery Management Board and rights over the river vindicated the long-held stand of his dispensation. Quoting the Supreme Court verdict that asked the Union government to take steps to ensure that a mechanism is put in place to monitor that the water release is followed, Palaniswami said this was a major victory for the “Amma Government” which has been consistently pushing for constitution of Cauvery Management Board. “This is a major victory for the Amma Government. The Tamil Nadu Government will exert pressure on the Union Government to implement the verdict in a time-bound manner,” Palaniswami said in a statement and welcomed the observation by the judges that no state can lay claim over rivers.
Several of Karnataka's prayers like declaring “null and void” the 1892 and 1924 agreements between the then Madras and Mysore presidencies have been rejected by the Supreme Court, the Chief Minister noted and said the apex court has confirmed the CWDT order the Cauvery delta region has 24.708 lakh acre of cultivable land.
The apex court rejected Karnataka's contention that the cultivable land in Tamil Nadu should be reduced to 21 lakh acre, he said. “It is disappointing that the Supreme Court has reduced the water level to be made available at Biligundulu from 192 tmcft to 177.25 tmcft,” he said.
Accusing the DMK of never working to secure the state's rights, he alleged that DMK working president M. K. Stalin and party senior Durai Murugan were “misleading” the people. “It is the DMK which surrendered the rights of Tamil Nadu to Karnataka. It was during Karunanidhi's regime as CM in 1974, Karnataka constructed a dam across Kabini. Tamil Nadu's rights were surrendered only during DMK's regime,” he said. “The Amma's government will always ensure rights of farmers and in that earnest, I assure that the government will decide its next course of action after consulting legal experts,”he said.
He recalled Jayalalithaa's fast during her first tenure and her knocking at the doors of the Supreme Court when the Union Government led by the Congress, of which the DMK was also part, “failed” to notify the order of the CWDT in 2007.
“When did the DMK get Cauvery water? The DMK never worked to notify the order in the Union Government's gazette. It was due to the efforts of Amma that the award was notified in 2013. The DMK never did anything to protect state's interests,” Panneerselvam said. He was responding to DMK Working President M K Stalin's statement accusing the Tamil Nadu government of not protecting the water share announced due to efforts of his father M Karunanidhi during his tenure as Chief Minister in 2007. The Deputy Chief Minister also said it was Jayalalithaa who had waged “historic battles” for getting Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
