Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Wednesday criticised the DMK at a public meeting in Nagapattinam saying it had continuously been forsaking Tamil Nadu’s interests.
Addressing the first of the series of meetings organised by the party in the delta districts to exert pressure on the Central government to form the Cauvery Management Board, he said the DMK, which he claimed was scared of the consequences of the Sarkaria Commisision recommendations, had withdrawn the cases filed to secure the rights of the State on Cauvery. This paved the way for Karnataka to construct dams. The party had also failed to renew the water-sharing agreement for a 50-year-period during 1974.
Karnataka, Mr. Paneerselvam said, had constructed several dams whenever the DMK had ruled over a cumulative period of 40 years. The then Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, never raised any objection.
Though the Congress and the DMK were in power at the Centre and the State at a point of time, it was late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa who had later ensured publication of the final order of the Cauvery Tribunal in the gazette, he said.
Having failed to get the Cauvery River Regulatory Committee formed, the DMK had no moral right to talk on the Cauvery issue, the Deputy Chief Minister said.
He described the ‘padayatra’ and human chain protests by the DMK a farcical drama to cover up its failures, and said the people were keenly watching its activities.
The AIADMK government was being run in the path set by Jayalalithaa. “We have come together not to let anybody else usurp power,” he said, apparently referring to his patch-up with Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
There was no opportunism, misuse of power or sectarian dimensions in the association, he said.
The State government, which had secured an order from the Supreme Court warranting formation of Cauvery Management Board over a six-week period, was now expecting the Central government to evolve a scheme by May 3, in deference to the court directive.
