The Hindu : Cauvery brings them together

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 25, 2003

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National

Cauvery brings them together

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 24. It is not often that you see AIADMK and DMK MPs support each other, or Congress and BJP MPs argue the same case. Today was one such day in the Lok Sabha. The catalyst for the unusual development was the Cauvery water dispute.

The strong feelings over the Cauvery issue in the two States almost boiled over in the Lok Sabha today as the MPs from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu went for each others' jugular. Matters came to a head as V. Saroja (AIADMK) accused the Congress and the Karnataka Government of politicising the issue and refusing to obey the award of the Cauvery Tribunal.

Ms. Saroja's remarks sparked angry protests from the Karnataka MPs belonging to both the Congress and the BJP, and the Speaker intervened to bring order.

Moving an adjournment motion on the issue, she urged the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition to intervene and ensure that Tamil Nadu got its share of water.

Making a persuasive case for Tamil Nadu, Ms. Saroja said that farmers in Tamil Nadu were on the "verge of devastation". Many parts of the State were in the grip of a drought and were without even drinking water.

The Cauvery Tribunal had directed Karnataka in 1991 to release 205 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu but it had consistently refused to do so, while both Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu had accepted it.The AIADMK member was supported by Palani Manickam, DMK, who said it was a life and death issue for the people of Tamil Nadu. He pointed out that thousands of farmers were suffering because of the "callous attitude" of the Karnataka Government.

Mr. Manickam's observations brought about an angry retort from the Karnataka MPs who accused their counterparts from Tamil Nadu of "misrepresenting" the issue. The senior Congress MP, S. Bangarappa, made it clear that while his State was willing to honour all its commitments, it did not have any water to share with the others." We do not have excess water, the river basin is absolutely dry, thousands of acres of crops have dried up because we don't have water, how can we release water to others," he asked.

He suggested that the Prime Minister call a meeting of the Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Karnataka and Kerala to resolve the issue.The BJP MP from Karnataka, Dhananjay Kumar, said that in the last two years there had been no rains.

"We don't have drinking water how can we be expected to release water to others," he asked.While Mani Shankar Aiyer (Cong.) agreed that the catchment areas of the Cauvery had very little water, he lamented that no attempt had been made by the Prime Minister to give a political directive to the States concerned.

Mr. Aiyer also suggested that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, file a petition in the Supreme Court for the resumption of the hearing on the stalled Cauvery case, so that its decision was binding on all the States.

He also criticised the Water Resources Minister, for not taking the initiative to take the members of the parliamentary standing committee of the Ministry to the Cauvery basin for an on the spot study.

He demanded that a meeting of the State Ministers concerned was called to discuss the issue.

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