CHENNAI: DMK working president M.K. Stalin on Tuesday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the issue of constitution of Cauvery Management Board on the directions of the Supreme Court during his recent visit to Tamil Nadu. Stalin, also the Opposition Leader, asked the ruling BJP and Modi not to handle the sensitive Cauvery issue with an eye on ‘electoral gains’ in poll bound Karnataka, the upper riparian state in the river water sharing dispute. “The Prime Minister maintained silence on the Cauvery issue by not speaking about it when he came to Tamil Nadu... is condemnable,” Stalin, Leader of the Opposition, said in a tweet.
Modi had attended the launch of the state government's 'Amma scooter scheme' on Saturday. At the time, Chief Minister K Palaniswami had urged him to expedite the formation of the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee as per the directions of the SC. Delivering its verdict on the inter-state dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka recently, the apex court had reduced the latter's share of the river water by 14.75 tmcft.
BJP had acted in “haste” on the issue of National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test in Tamil Nadu, Stalin said in an apparent reference to the stiff resistance to the test in the state. BJP should not adopt a similar approach vis-a-vis Cauvery, he added. “The CMB should be constituted within six weeks. Don't make Tamil Nadu a protest zone for electoral gains in Karnataka,” Stalin said in another tweet.
