Not a single day passes in Tamil Nadu without the leaders of the DMK, the Congress, the Communists and Vaiko of the MDMK blaming the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre for its “failure” to resolve the Cauvery water dispute in which Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are the main litigants.
But a perusal of recent history proves beyond doubt that the Congress-DMK combine failed to keep the promise it made to the people of Tamil Nadu with respect to resolving the Cauvery River Water Dispute as well as making water available for the people of the State.
The National Common Minimum Programme of the UPA Government, which came to power at the Centre in 2004 and ruled the country for a decade had assured the people of Tamil Nadu that it would resolve the Cauvery issue and also initiate the inter-linking of peninsular Indian rivers to address the recurring floods and droughts in the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh.
“The UPA Government will make a comprehensive assessment of the feasibility of linking the rivers of 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,”, said the National Common Minimum Programme of the UPA which bore the signatures of the leaders of all the constituents, including the Congress, the DMK, the CPI(M) and the CPI.
But the UPA Government did nothing to inter-link the peninsular Indian rivers though the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) had drawn up a concrete proposal for the project. “The then Government of India could have easily ordered the linking of Netravati, Hemavati and Cauvery rivers, which would have been a win-win situation for both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,” said H Raja, national secretary of the BJP.
PM Natarajan, leading hydrologist, is of the view that nearly 1,000 TMC water is wasted into Arabian Sea by the west flowing Netravati and Heavati rivers. “All we have to do is to divert a portion of these waters to Cauvery. It would solve the dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka once and for ever,” said Natarajan who has been invited by the Indian Science Congress to address the delegates of the 104th session to be held at Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati during January 3-7, 2017 on the topic of Inter liking of Indian Rivers.
Raja pointed out the indifference of the UPA Government towards the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal which delivered its award in February 2007. “The Congress-led Government did nothing to implement the award. It notified the award only in 2013. For six long years, the Congress and the DMK did nothing to resolve the problem. The DMK-Congress alliance blaming the BJP is nothing but hypocrisy,” said Raja.
After the UPA was voted back to power in 2009, Rahul Gandhi, the Congress vice-president, declared that inter-linking of rivers would lead to natural disaster. “This is an unsubstantiated observation made by a person with no scientific background,” said S Kalyanaraman, director, Saraswati Research Centre, a Chennai think- tank involved in studying about rivers in the country.