Toddy Movement Plans Dharapuram Bypoll Bid for Cauvery, Toddy Rights
Movement coordinator C Nallasamy said the movement would conduct intensive grassroots campaigns across the constituency
Salem: The Tamil Nadu Toddy Movement plans to field a candidate in the Dharapuram assembly constituency in the upcoming by-election to spearhead a campaign for Cauvery water rights and the legalisation of toddy, movement coordinator C Nallasamy said on Sunday. He said the movement would conduct intensive grassroots campaigns across the constituency.
"In the upcoming by-election, we will field a candidate in the Dharapuram constituency as a candidate of Cauvery rights retrieval and toddy liberation policies," Nallasamy told reporters here.
Placing the decades-old prohibition on toddy at the forefront, Nallasamy renewed his open challenge, offering a Rs 10 crore cash reward to anyone who can prove the ban is justifiable.
"If anyone among you proves that the ban on toddy is justified, I will give a Rs 10 crore prize," he declared.
Taking aim at lawmakers demanding official upgrades, he added, "MLAs keep asking for cars. If any MLA comes, argues, and proves that the ban on toddy is justified, we will give that legislator an Innova car."
Nallasamy cited the report of the Justice B Gokuldas Commission, which was constituted by the state government to probe the illicit liquor tragedy in Kallakurichi. "The judge asked in the report why there is a ban on toddy in Tamil Nadu when it is a natural, nutritious food equivalent to mother's milk," Nallasamy said.
According to him, the ban continues solely because political parties across the ideological spectrum rely on the commercial liquor lobby for election funding.
Highlighting the economic and rural livelihood potential, he pointed out that out of eight crore palmyra trees in India, five crore are in Tamil Nadu.
He argued that allowing farmers to tap neera, padhaneer, and toddy from palmyra, coconut, and date palms, and packaging them as value-added products for domestic and international markets, would generate massive rural employment and state revenue. Delivering an ultimatum to the ruling administration, he asserted: "Either announce the lifting of the ban on toddy, or step down from the Chief Minister's chair."
Turning to state infrastructure spending, Nallasamy urged the government to abandon its proposal to construct a new Secretariat at Pattinapakkam and redirect the proposed Rs 1,600 crore allocation to priority irrigation schemes. "The Secretariat is in good condition and remains strong. It has a 350-year history and was built by the East India Company," he pointed out, noting that Tamil Nadu is already saddled with Rs 13 lakh crore in public debt while facing impending climate crises such as the "Super El Nino".
"This sum should instead be utilized for the Cauvery–Vaigai–Gundar river-linking project and the Mettur–Sarabanga surplus water scheme," he added.
On inter-state water management, Nallasamy argued that the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award remains unworkable under its current monthly quota schedule, leaving Tamil Nadu short of water during the crucial Kuruvai paddy season.
He called for amending the mechanism to ensure daily proportional water sharing from Karnataka's reservoirs directly into Mettur Dam, alongside demanding an immediate common effluent treatment plant (CETP) to clean up Salem's heavily polluted Thirumanimutharu river.
