Chennai: DMK chief M. Karunanidhi on Wednesday warned that farmers of the state would not forgive any party which did not support the Cauvery bandh and asked the ruling AIADMK to support the agitations magnanimously.
He said expressing the sentiments of the state through the protest would be a constructive approach and asked the traders associations and theatre owners to co-operate for the protest.
He also accused Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa of remaining silent on the issue and she had ignored appeals to conduct an all-party meeting to discuss the issue.
Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal had specified the quantum of water to be released by Karnataka every month, but the latter had not followed it. Only when the dams in Karnataka overflowed, it would release surplus water to Tamil Nadu.
Due to Karnataka’s refusal to release Tamil Nadu’s share of Cauvery water, Tamil Nadu farmers had lost kuruvai as well as samba crops.
Now, Karnataka had planned to construct more dams to store the surplus water it was releasing to Tamil Nadu, Karunanidhi said. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddharamaiah, in his Independence Day speech this year, had announced that a detailed project report for construction of Mekedatu dam had been prepared.
Karnataka government had started constructing a bridge across Arthavathi river to carry materials to construct the dam.
The Karnataka government had announced its proposal to build four check dams besides the Mekedatu dam with a capacity of 48 tmcft. Recalling that a protest against Karnataka government’s announcement to construct a dam at Mekedatu across Cauvery was held on 22 November 2014 and all the parties including the DMK, MDMK, Congress, PMK, VCK and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi supported it.
