Even as lawmakers of the AIADMK and the DMK have been preventing both Houses of Parliament from functioning demanding the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board as directed by the Supreme Court in its verdict, it has been disclosed that both the parties have done nothing to sort out the Cauvery imbroglio in the past.
The DMK, which was the crucial constituent of the UPA Government led by the Congress which reigned during 2004 to 2013, the party has not pressurised the Manmohan Singh-led Government either to constitute the CMB or even to gazette the award issued by the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal in February 2007.
But what is more startling is the silence maintained by the DMK from 2004 to 2013 from asking the Manmohan Singh Government to implement what the UPA had promised people in its famous Common Minimum Programme.
The CMP, drafted and finalised by the pre and post poll constituents of the UPA after the 2004 lok Sabha election, which saw the BJP-led NDA Government biting the dust, had promised the electorate that the Manmohan Singh-led Government would sort out all inter-State water disputes at the earliest so that farmers all over the country need not worry over shortage of irrigation water.
The Common Minimum Programme drafted and finalised by all the constituent parties of the UPA Government was released on May 27, 2004, five days after Manmohan Singh was sworn in as Prime Minister of the country. The most notable feature of the CMP was the UPA’s commitment to make water available 24X7 to the farming community in the country.
The section “Water Resources” in the CMP reads: “The UPA Government will make a comprehensive assessment of the feasibility of linking the rivers in the country, starting with the south-bound rivers. This assessment will be done in a fully consultative manner. It will also explore the feasibility of linking sub-basins of rivers in States like Bihar. The UPA will take all steps to ensure that long-pending inter-State disputes on rivers and water-sharing like the Cauvery waters dispute are settled amicably at the earliest, keeping in mind the interests of all parties to the dispute.”
Neither the DMK nor the Congress spoke about the linking of rivers even once during the tenure of the UPA Government.