Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Thursday indicated that the AIADMK may not back the Telugu Desam Party’s no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government in the Lok Sabha.
Mr. Palaniswami was speaking to reporters after opening the shutters of the Stanley reservoir, in Mettur.
Asked about the AIADMK’s stand on the first no-confidence motion against the BJP-led NDA government, Mr Palaniswami avoided a direct response. Instead he said the motion was being moved by the TDP against the non-announcement of special package for Andhra Pradesh and it in no way concerned Tamil Nadu.
Besides, the AIADMK co-coordinator said that when his party MPs had disrupted Parliament for 22 days during Budget session to highlight the demand for the formation of the Cauvery Management Board earlier this year, no MP or political party from other States supported the “just demand” of the AIADMK then.
The AIADMK has 37 members in the Lok Sabha.
Water released from Mettur for irrigation
Water gushing out from the Stanley reservoir, Mettur in Salem district which was opened for irrigation on Thursday.
Earlier, the Stanley Reservoir in Mettur was opened for commencing farm activities in a dozen districts on Thursday.
Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami opened the sluices at 10.30 am after special poojas. This is the first time that the Chief Minister opening the shutters of Mettur dam.
About 2,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) was released initially. The Chief Minister said the discharge will be increased gradually to 20,000 cusecs gradually. Mr. Palaniswami said with the current inflow, the dam will achieve full reservoir level in the next three days. The water level in the dam stood at 109 ft on Thursday morning against its full reservoir level of 120 ft. The storage level stood at 76.996 tmc (thousand million cubic feet) against the full capacity of 93.47 tmc. The dam was receiving an inflow of 1,01,277 cusecs.
A host of state Ministers, senior bureaucrats, elected representatives, and a large number of members of various farmers’ associations were present on the occasion. Though it was customary to release water on June 12 every year, the same was deferred this year due to poor storage level. This was the 85th year that water was being released from Mettur Dam since it was constructed in 1934.
As per the annual irrigation calendar of the PWD, water was usually released for farm activities in delta region for 230 days from June 12 – January 28. The farmers from the delta districts will be in need of about 330 tmc of water for raising Kuruvai, Samba, Thaladi in about 16 lakh acres.
The Supreme Court in its final order fixed Tamil Nadu's allocation to 177 tmc. For the consecutive last six years, the opening of the sluices of the dam has been delayed beyond the customary date. While the water was released from the dam in the month of August for three years (2013, 14 and 15), it was released in September twice (2012 and 16). Last year, water was released on October 2.In 2011, the water from the dam was released in advance on June 6, six days before the customary date, due to satisfactory storage level.
