Delta farmers’ association pitch for expeditious disposal of SLPs before Supreme Court

The Tiruchi District Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association has appealed to the Cauvery Family to depute a delegation of its members to meet the Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka seeking their efforts for the expeditious disposal of the special leave petitions filed by the States before the Supreme Court on the final award of the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal.

Members of the Cauvery Family, a forum of stakeholders from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, should meet the Chief Ministers seeking the expeditious disposal of the petitions. The Tribunal award should also be gazetted at the earliest. The Cauvery Modernisation Project, proposed at a cost of Rs.5,500 crores by the Tamil Nadu Government, should also be implemented expeditiously, the Association said in a resolution adopted at its meeting here on Sunday.

With the recent opening of the statues of Thiruvalluvar in Bangalore and Sarvajna in Chennai, a favourable climate has been created for talks between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The opportunity should be utilised now to dispose the petitions before the Supreme Court.

The execution of Cauvery modernisation project was vital to overcome the uncertainty over the availability of water for irrigation in the delta and also to prevent wasteful flow of water from Tamil Nadu into the sea, the association observed. Experts have pointed out the need for increasing food grain production and modernising the grain storage systems, it said.

Through another resolution it appealed to the Public Works Department to ensure adequate water for irrigation in the tail-end areas of the Kattalai High Level Channel in villages such as Koundampatti, Koppu, Ettarai, Adavathur and Thayanur.

The meeting was presided over by G.Kanagasabai, President of the association. Mahadhanapuram V.Rajaram, Executive President, Dikshithar Balasubramanian, R.Subramanian, deputy general secretary, and others attended the meeting.