Even as Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy opened the Mettur Dam on Thursday morning to facilitate the farming operations in the districts of Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Tiruchirappalli, Cuddalore and Nagapattinam, farmers in Tamil Nadu have come out with a demand that Karnataka release more Cauvery water to the State as well as the water unutilised by Kerala.
The new claims by the farmers have the potential to generate another controversy and law and order issue between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The month May saw the DMK and other fringe elements waving black flags at the Prime Minister when he came to Chennai to inaugurate the Defence Expo. They had even flown black balloons as the Prime Minister heli hopped from Chennai airport to the venue of the Defence Expo.
The farming community and the entire Opposition parties in the State which have been agitating against the Centre demanding the constitution of the Cauvery Management Authority for the judicious allocation of the Cauvery water between the stakeholders (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry) as per the directive of the Supreme Court in February 2018, were silent during the last fortnight as the South West Monsoon brought bountiful rainfall and Karnataka started releasing water to Tamil Nadu.
The Mettur Dam got filled by Thursday because of the water gushing down from Cauvery as Karnataka opened the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam. “Whatever Cauvery water is being released by Karnataka now does not belong to the quantity stipulated by the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal of the Supreme Court. This is the flood waters being released by Karnataka to save itself from the fury of flood,” said Arupathy P Kalyanam, general secretary, Federation of Farmers’ Associations, Tamil Nadu.
The FFA, in a memorandum to the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday pointed out that Karnataka was releasing only the surplus flows and it should not be taken into account of monthly releases as stipulated by the Cauvery River Water Tribunal and the Supreme Court. They said that whatever water being released by Karnataka now was not part of the quantity of water allocated by the tribunal or the Supreme Court.
Quoting statistics from the last fifty years of legal battle with Karnataka, the Tamil Nadu farmers stated: “The Cauvery Delta People of Tamil Nadu had lost most of their traditional rights in the legal battle which was dragged on for 50 years,” said the memorandum.
“Tamil Nadu Government must make strong representation with the Cauvery Management Board that the unutilized water from Kerala should be released to Tamil Nadu in addition to the allocated share of the State as directed by the Cauvery Tribunal in its final order in 2007,” said the FFA memorandum to the Tamil Nadu Government. The Farmers’ association has included the relevant portions of the verdict delivered by CWT to strengthen their demand.