“It is the best birthday gift I ever had in my life.” This was how Chief Minister Jayalalithaa [whose birthday falls on Sunday as per Roman calendar] reacted after the Union government notified the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in the gazette on Wednesday.
>Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal report (Gazette Notification)
Talking to reporters at the secretariat, she said it was a great victory to her and her government and the happiest day for the farmers of Tamil Nadu, especially the farmers of the Cauvery Delta region. In her 30-year-long political life, she said “I have a sense of fulfilment and achievement today because we have secured Tamil Nadu’s rights over the Cauvery water.”
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As the order has been notified, it would be binding on the Karnataka government, she said.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said the notification was culmination of the long struggle she had been waging for the last 23 years since she assumed office as the Chief Minister for the first time in 1991.
Ms. Jayalalithaa recalled her fast in July 1993 emanding the creation of an implementation mechanism for the interim order.
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