TN to move Cauvery tribunal

The Tamil Nadu government today decided to move the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and seek clarification on its final award, and also move the Supreme Court, if need be.

A resolution in this regard was adopted at an all-party meeting convened today by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. The original draft of the resolution, in which the government proposed to file a petition to clarify its position before the tribunal, was later changed to accomodate the AIADMK's viewpoint. The main main Opposition wanted the government to move the Supreme Court skipping the tribunal.

The resolution said the leaders had decided to file a review petition with the Tribunal, seeking clarifications on its final verdict to protect the state's "rights and needs".

It also decided to file an appeal in the apex court, if necessary, at a later stage. Karnataka had 'wrongly imagined' that the final verdict was in favour of Tamil Nadu and was trying to stop its implementation by filing an appeal in the Supreme Court to prevent the notification in the gazette, the resolution added. All political parties,including the DMK, AIADMK, Congress, PMK, MDMK, CPI, CPI-M, BJP, DMDK and DPI attended the meet.

The meeting today was convened to elicit the views of the parties on the disadvatageous points in the final award and measures to take corrective steps through a review petition.

The final verdict was given on February 5. The three month period to seek review will end on the first week of May.