Amidst the clamour for the formation of the Cauvery Management Board (CMB), BJP State president Tamilisai Soundararajan on Saturday said the nomenclature of the panel did not matter, but maintained that the directions of the Supreme Court would be adhered to.
“There is no question of Tamil Nadu being victimised. The Centre will ensure that the rights of the State are protected,” she told mediapersons while en route to Pudukottai.
When asked why a committee was being formed instead of the Cauvery Management Board, she said, “What we need is water. The name of the committee doesn’t matter. We can only go by the Supreme Court’s verdict. They [the authorities] are doing whatever the SC had directed them to do.”
Citing the opposition to the formation of the CMB from Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the Congress MPs from the State, Ms. Soundararajan said TNCC president Su. Thirunavukkarasar and DMK working president M.K. Stalin should first protest against their stand. The BJP, she said, wanted to ensure that Tamil Nadu got its due share of water.
To a query, she said the BJP welcomed the positives that emerged during the first year of the Edappadi K. Palaniswami-led AIADMK government, but added that there were shortcomings that needed to be rectified. “The Prime Minister’s Crop Insurance Scheme has not been implemented properly and corruption in some departments needs to be checked,” she explained.
Ms. Soundararajan pressed for the conduct of the local body polls at the earliest and demanded the filling of the “30,000 vacancies” in the State police force, as its personnel were facing a high level of stress at work.
