Cadres of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and Marumalarchi Dravida Muneetra Kazhagam (MDMK) staged a demonstration on Panagal Road near the bus stand here on Thursday condemning the “failure” of the State government in getting due share of Cauvery water from Karnataka as per the award of the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal, and for not opening the Mettur dam in time for kuruvai cultivation in delta districts.
They also protested against poor civic amenities in Tiruvarur town such as bad roads, leakage in drainage and drinking water pipelines etc. The agitation was led by C. Ponnaiyan, former Minister, and R. Kamaraj, district secretary of the AIADMK. Ilamathi Subramaniam, MLA (AIADMK), district functionaries A. Marx (CPI), I. Nagarajan CPI (M), Srinivasan (MDMK), S. Kamaraj, former district secretary of the AIADMK, participated in the agitation.
Speakers traced the history of the Cauvery water dispute and recalled that it was Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi who had withdrawn a case from the Supreme Court to please the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This led to the Cauvery crisis. Now, three years even after the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal had given the final award, it had not been implemented. The matter had again gone to the Supreme Court.
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The Mettur dam could not be opened on June 12. The State government had not taken steps to get the due share of the Cauvery water from Karnataka.