Chennai: Accusing DMK working president M.K. Stalin of attempting to ‘politicise’ the issue of Cauvery water being discharged into the sea, Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar said the government has ensured an effective mechanism to harness excess water for the benefit of farmers.
Lashing out at Mr. Stalin for alleging that the State government was allowing the excess water to go waste into the sea due to lack of foresight on water management, Mr Jayakumar said whenever there is bountiful rains, water is bound to get discharged into the sea. “He is talking as if the Cauvery water did not get discharged into the sea during his party’s rule. Excess water mixing with the sea is but a natural phenomenon,” he said and added excess water was discharged into the sea during the DMK rule in 2000 and 2008, when 385 TMC feet and 114 TMC feet water was let into sea.
On Sunday, Mr Stalin had blamed the state government for its alleged lack of foresight in water management and claimed this had led to the copious water flow into reservoirs go waste into the sea. “This excess water could have better utilized to meet irrigation drinking water needs. The government is wastefully letting the water to flow into the sea,” he said.
In a hard-hitting statement here on Monday night, Mr Jayakumar said Mr Stalin was distorting facts. Taking into account the water requirement for sambha crop by the delta farmers, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami had released water from the Mettur dam on July 19. “And water is being regulated to all the beneficiary districts. Also, the water from the Veeranam lake is being used to quench the thirst of Chennaiites,” Mr Jayakumar said.
Further, the Minister informed that a team of IAS officials have been entrusted with the task of overseeing desilting of water channels and water management to ensure a smooth flow of the Cauvery water to all the areas. Also, an expert team of retired engineers which has been formed to advise the government on desilting waterways, had already held its first meeting and submitted its report to the State government, for appropriate action.
Accordingly, the government is taking steps to build check dams and dams at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore. Sanction has been accorded to build 74 check dams and 7 dams, he added.
The inflow of water into Tamil Nadu was bountiful this year owing to heavy rain and water is being released into the Cauvery at the rate of 30,000 cusecs and into Kollidam at 23,000 cusecs, the maximum carrying capacity of those rivers.
