Insisting once again that the Centre notify the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Saturday found fault with her arch rival and DMK president M. Karunanidhi for failing to get the final order notified despite sharing power at the Centre.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, Ms. Jayalalithaa said while her government was straining every nerve for the notification, DMK MPs met the Prime Minister recently on the insistence of Mr. Karunanidhi as he was afraid that she would earn a name if the tribunal’s final order was gazetted now.
“It is not clear if the DMK MPs insisted on the final notification during the meeting or tried to scuttle it? It is still a puzzle,” she said arguing that any representation for the notification should have been in writing and if the DMK was really in favour of it, then Mr. Karunanidhi should have released it to the media. “But he has not released it so far, which makes it clear that there was no such representation from Karunanidhi,” Ms. Jayalalithaa charged.
The DMK government did not take any step to get the final order notified or sought an audience with the Prime Minister on the issue during his rule when his party also shared power at the Centre after the final order was pronounced in February 2007. Knowing that the AIADMK MPs were waiting for days for an appointment with the Prime Minister, the DMK MPs have been forced to meet the Prime Minister, she said.
Ms. Jayalalithaa also recalled that her government had moved the Supreme Court early this year after which the Centre, after the Cauvery Monitoring Committee meeting earlier this month, had agreed to notify the final order by the end of December 2012.
Even after the final order of the tribunal in February 2007, the AIADMK, in an all party meeting, had insisted on the notification of the order and the constitution of Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee without any delay, she recalled.
At a subsequent all-party meeting in April 2004, the AIADMK wanted the State government to approach the Supreme Court but it was Mr. Karunanidhi who argued that if the final order was notified, an appeal could not be made in the Supreme Court, she recalled.
