Cauvery Dispute Snowballs into Political Issue
The Cauvery water-sharing dispute intensified politically as Tamil Nadu stepped up pressure on Karnataka over water release and the proposed Mekedatu dam.
Holding a high-level consultative meeting at the Secretariat on Monday to address the Cauvery dispute that is snowballing to a major political issue with all parties in Tamil Nadu urging the State government to restrain Karnataka that is showing extraordinary interest on constructing a dam at Mekedatu, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay sought the advice of his ministerial colleagues and officials on ways and means to tackle the standoff.
Earlier in the day the issue found a voice in Parliament with the opposition DMK MPs demanding a discussion in the House and staging a walkout when permission was denied. Later AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami came out with a hard-hitting statement urging Vijay, whom he addressed as Chief Minister of the TVK-Congress coalition’s ‘dummy horse’ government, to put pressure on getting the State’s share of at the meeting of Cauvery Water Management Committee on Wednesday.
So far, Karnataka had not released water to Tamil Nadu as stipulated by the tribunals and the Supreme Court and the TVK government had not been raising the issue at the various forums as it should had, he said.
The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee, at its last meeting heard the arguments of both the riparian States and decided to review the situation in the next meeting on July 28 while Tamil Nadu had received about 21 tmc water less than its allotment.
Water in the Mettur reservoir, considered to be the lifeline of the farmers of the Cauvery delta, stood at such an abysmal level that it has not been released for irrigation this year though the stipulated date is June 12.
Palaniswami described the failure of the Chief Minister to speak to the Karnataka government for the release of water in the last two months as a betrayal of the farmers in the delta districts. He condemned the Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar for not respecting the Supreme Court on sharing Cauvery water with Tamil Nadu.
Despite the Cauvery Water Management Committee urging Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu, the neighbouring State had not obliged and the committee too had not insisted on it, he regretted. Only when there was surplus flow in Cauvery, Tamil Nadu gets its share, he said.
