‘Congress playing politics over Cauvery board’

Party’s state president Tamilisai Soundararajan said that the DMK and Congress did nothing on the Cauvery issue when they were in power in the state and Centre respectively. She lauded Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for taking legal efforts on the Cauvery issue and for approaching the Supreme Court. She said if the DMK led an all-party delegation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Mukherjee on the issue, her party will not participate in it. She, however, said BJP will be part of such initiatives by the Tamil Nadu government. 

“Now the two parties are alleging that the BJP has not protected the interests of farmers of Cauvery Delta region. The DMK has failed to harness rain water and maintain the water resources properly during its tenure,” she said speaking to reporters at the Chennai airport. “Making such an accusation (against BJP) is blatantly wrong,” she said against the backdrop of allegations by Tamil Nadu parties including the DMK and Congress for ‘betraying the interests of Tamil Nadu and farmers.’ 

After the Central government recently told the Supreme Court that setting up the CMB fell in the domain of Parliament, and took a stance against immediately setting up the Board, the Saffron party became the target for attack by all the parties in Tamil Nadu including the ruling and Opposition.

BJP said the Centre was not going back on setting up of the Cauvery Management Board. By complying with norms, she said the Centre would take a decision on the issue after a high-level committee submitted its report in the Supreme Court on the ground situation in the Cauvery basins of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. She expressed confidence that ‘CMB will be set up’ by the Centre.