: Shocked Delta farmers on Monday slammed the “utterly partisan and politically motivated” decision of the Central Government not to form the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) for now besides claiming that only Parliament had the right to constitute the CMB. They contended that the Centre is flagrantly siding with Karnataka in denying Tamil Nadu its due share of Cauvery waters and its stand was a direct assault on the federal nature of the country.
“All along, we Delta farmers were enduring a crisis of water. Now, we are heading into a crisis of justice,” the general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association ‘Mannargudi’ S. Ranganathan said.
“We have not only been denied water but also justice. I think we are not going to get justice,” he added.
Wondering whether the Centre was taking Tamil Nadu for granted, Mr. Ranganathan stated that the Centre’s stance was not in the spirit of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s final orders as it was wrong to assume that only Parliament could constitute the CMB. Also, any Bench of the Supreme Court had the right to question the Centre’s lapses, he added.
‘In Congress’ footsteps’
“The BJP is following in the footsteps of the Congress of the 1960s in playing parochial politics. What happened in 48 hours for the Centre to reverse its original stand of agreeing to form the Cauvery Management Board as per the Supreme Court’s order and do a volte face in questioning the court’s competence in ordering formation of the CMB,” asked the general secretary of the Federation of Farmers’ Associations of Cauvery Delta, Arupathy P. Kalyanam.
Mr. Kalyanam, reflecting the anger of the Delta farmers, wondered what then was the need for a Supreme Court if Karnataka and the Central Government flagrantly subverted the essence of its orders. “The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, in its final orders, had devoted 20 pages in Chapter VIII wherein it had decreed the constitution of an empowered, independent Cauvery Management Board to implement the orders, which it had specifically stated, would remain just a piece of paper sans such an authority,” he added.
“The Centre’s stand has come a shock to all of us who were seeing a ray of hope in the Supreme Court’s recent orders,” a dismayed State president of the CPI (M)-affiliated Tamil Nadu Vivasyigal Sangam and former MLA K. Balakrishnan said. “The BJP is playing partisan politics. What is the use of a Tribunal when its orders are given a short shrift. Should all our efforts of several decades come to a nought?” he wondered.
