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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today exuded confidence that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be ‘neutral’ vis-a-vis the Cauvery water dispute with Karnataka. She said it was only fair to give the BJP government some time before it acts on her demand to constitute the Cauvery Management Board.
Holding that all political parties in the state shared common view on constituting the CMB, she said there was no need for an all-party meeting as demanded by DMK chief M Karunanidhi. Responding to Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar’s statement that there was no proposal to set up the CMB, Jayalalithaa said the remarks were not made by Prime Minister Modi or the Minister concerned, i.e. Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti.
The Chief Minister recalled that she had presented a memorandum to Modi during her meeting with him on June 3, calling for constituting the CMB, among other demands. She said the Prime Minister had “kindly said that he would take action. He seeks good relations with Tamil Nadu government and wants to help the state. Constituting the CMB is part of the final award (of 2007) of the Cauvery Tribunal and it needs some time to implement it.”
“We are confident that the Prime Minster will be neutral in this matter and it is fair that the Centre is given some time,” on constituting CMB she said, adding, why Karunanidhi was in a hurry to raise the issue within a week of her Delhi visit. She charged her arch rival with failing to get the final award of the Cauvery Tribunal notified in a Central gazette despite being in power at Centre and state in 2007 and accused him of considering interests of “family business” in Karnataka in not doing so and ridiculed his demand for an all-party meeting.
She claimed credit for her government for having the final award notified in a central gazette after it moved the Supreme Court in this regard.
<b>Check dams in Kaveri delta</b>
Madras High Court today disposed of a PIL seeking a direction to the Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, and State Water Resources Department to construct check dams and storage dams across the Kollidam river in Kaveri Delta Districts.
The First Bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Satish K Agnihotri and Justice M M Sundresh disposed of the petition filed by advocate K Rajendran after recording the counter affidavit filed by the State Water Resources Department. The department said in the affidavit that a committee set up by the state government, has recommended construction of barrage below the Lower Coleroom Anicut and this proposal had been included in the Scheme of ‘Improvements and Rehabilitation of Irrigation System.’
The petitioner submitted that if storage check dams were not built, salt water from the Bay of Bengal would percolate underground and intrude into the good water aquifer in the Kollidam and Cauvery river belt, and in such an eventuality, future generations would face desert like situation in the delta.
In the counter affidavit, the Water Resources Department submitted that the state government was executing a check dam across the Cauvery near Kambarasampatti for recharge of ground water and to improve the drinking water supply.
It was further submitted that there was a proposal to construct check dams, grade walls, among others, totalling 61, at an estimated cost of Rs 117 crore across branch rivers in the Cauvery Delta of Tamil Nadu benefiting districts like Tiruchirapalli, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam for improving irrigation facilities and recharge of ground water.
The affidavit also said a committee of the state government for utilization of flood water flows during the North East monsoon period, has recommended construction of a barrage below the Lower Coleroon anicut.
It said this proposal had been included in the Scheme of ‘Improvements and Rehabilitation of Irrigation System’ in the Cauvery Basin for funding assistance under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme of the Ministry of Water Resources. After recording the counter-affidavit, the First Bench, in its order, said “in the light of the stand taken by the respondents in their counter-affidavit, the writ petition is disposed of.”
