All leading regional political parties and the lefts in Tamil Nadu are on a path of agitation against the delay in the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board as per the directive of Supreme Court in its verdict delivered last month. The Union Government which is the authority to take the initiative for the formation of the CMB is dilly dallying over the issue allegedly due to the upcoming Assembly election in Karnataka. The State of Karnataka is against the constitution of the CMB.
On Thursday, the Tamil Nadu Assembly had a special session immediately after the presentation of the 2018-2019 Budget by O Panneerselvam the deputy Chief Minister who is also the Finance Minister. Though the DMK-led Opposition had boycotted the Budget presentation in the morning , they took part in the special session held in the afternoon to discuss the Cauvery imbroglio.
The House unanimously passed a resolution condemning the Union Government and asking it to speed up the process of constituting the CMB. This is not the first time the Tamil Nadu Assembly passes a resolution over the Cauvery river water dispute. One has lost count of the number of times such resolutions were “unanimously passed” by the Tamil Nadu House . What happened afterwards is not known to any of the law makers in the State.
“What stands out is the failure of the AIADMK and the DMK to come out with a Plan B to save the farmers of the Cauvery Delta districts in the State. They are yet to discuss a serious alternative to the CMB,” said R V Giri, president, Consortium of Indian Farmers’ Association (CIFA).
Though the DMK could have forced the Centre to take up the linking of the peninsular Indian rivers during 2004 to 2013, when it was the most important constituent of the UPA governments, it chose to look the other way, said Kattumannarkoil Kannan, vice-president, Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association. The UPA Government’s Common Minimum Programme drawn out by the leaders of the constituent parties in May 2004 had promised the people that the Manmohan Singh-led Government would take up immediate steps to inter link the peninsular Indian rivers. “But since then neither the DMK nor other parties had spoken about the project even once,” said Giri.
Prof P M Natarajan, hydrologist of repute, pointed out that the west flowing rivers of Karnataka waste 1500 TMC FT to 2000 TMCFT water into the Arabian Sea every year. “A part of this water, if made to flow east could resolve the water scarcity faced by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,” said Natarajan.
S Kalyanaraman, director, Saraswathi Research Centre, a Chenni-based think tank on the country’s river system, quoted from the report prepared by National Water Development Authority under the Ministry of Water Resources said that if the west flowing rivers Hemavati and Netravati are linked to Cauvery through a series of canals and dams, the water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka could be resolved once and for ever. “We have the solutions in the NWDA repot itself. All one has to do is to implement it,” said Kalyanaraman.
But the people who are supposed to take decision on Cauvery Water Dispute are silent when it comes to this proposal which is described by farmers as well as experts as a win-win solution for all stake holders.