Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the Assembly on Thursday that Tamil Nadu had agreed to hold bilateral talks to review the water sharing agreement under the Parambikulam-Aliyar project (PAP).
Mr Vijayan told Mr Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Congress, who gave a notice for an adjournment motion, that his Tamil Nadu counterpart Mr K. Palaniswami had responded positively to the letter seeking discussion on the PAP.
It was after a long time that Tamil Nadu had come up for such talks, he said and added that it was, however, continuing to violate the agreement on the release of water to Kerala. Following the intervention of the government, the state had received more water this year, he said.
The central government had said at a recent meeting of the National Water Development Authority (NWDA) that a decision on linking Pampa-Achanko-vil with Vypar river in Tamil Nadu would be taken only after getting the consent of the state.
The closure of the Cauvery cell in New Delhi was related to official work deployment. It would not affect any of the pending inter-state water dispute cases, including Mullaperiyar, Cauvery water sharing and Neyyar, he said.
Mr Vijayan, who rejected the Opposition charges that the decision to close the cell was ‘mysterious,’ said a new committee had been formed under the chairmanship of former water resources secretary V.J. Kurien with technical experts as members. Two nodal officers in the law and irrigation departments will coordinate the cases and ensure technical support.
Mr Radhakrishnan said that the water cell was functioning in the Kerala House in Delhi to give technical support to deal with inter-state water disputes. Its closure was suspected to be under the influence of some ‘external force,’ he said. With Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan rejecting the adjournment notice, the Opposition staged a walkout.
