The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Saturday disapproved of the Supreme Court’s decision to constitute a five-member Empowered Committee to consider issues relating to the Mullaperiyar dam dispute, and declared that there was no need for Tamil Nadu to have a nominee on the panel.
Adopting a resolution at the general council meeting at the party headquarters here, the DMK said the party did not oppose the move, but it was in no position to accept the Supreme Court’s direction. The move amounts to deflecting the direction of the case filed by Tamil Nadu in the Supreme Court and creating an impression in favour of an amendment enacted by Kerala to its Irrigation and Water Conservation Act ignoring the court’s February 2006 order permitting Tamil Nadu to raise the water level in the dam initially from 136 ft up to 142 ft. “The general council strongly believes that there is no need for the Tamil Nadu government’s nominee to be present in the five-member committee to reiterate truth, which has been brought out by the seven-member Mittal Committee and the Supreme Court on the issue.” (In June 2000, the Union Water Resources Ministry constituted a seven-member committee, headed by Member of the Central Water Commission B.K. Mittal, to study the safety of the dam and advise the Union Water Resources Minister regarding raising of water level of the dam beyond 136 ft.)
Chief Minister and DMK president M. Karunanidhi chaired the meeting. Attended by Deputy Chief Minister and party treasurer M.K. Stalin and Finance Minister K. Anbazhagan, it passed 29 resolutions in all.
ADVERTISEMENT
The party wanted the internally-displaced Tamils now lodged in camps to be settled in their original places of residence without delay.
The DMK urged the Centre to drop the draft NCHER Bill and restore education in the State List. It termed as “unacceptable” the idea of a single entrance examination for admission to professional courses. It appealed to the Centre to reject the recommendations of the Kirit Parikh panel on the pricing of petroleum products. The DMK wanted the Union and State governments to discuss with representatives of the Muslim community the issue of compulsory registration of marriages. It asked the Centre to take steps on a war footing to contain the rise in prices of essential commodities.