CWMA must control dams, says MK Stalin

Stating that the losses accepted by Tamil Nadu farmers and agitations organised by people of all walks in the state had helped in getting at least this order notified in the Central gazette, Stalin said the Centre should issue a fresh notification providing greater autonomy and power to the authority to control the dams.

The notification should also comprise apportionment of water between the stakeholder states in accordance with the Supreme Court verdict revising the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, said the DMK working president, in a statement.

He also asked the ruling AIADMK here to stop being ‘servile’ to the Centre and make efforts immediately to ensure release of water for delta irrigation on the scheduled date of June 12. Recalling the apex order advising the Centre to constitute the CMB before June first week, Stalin said the Centre should have taken the nominations from the states and notified the CWMA with names of the chairman and members earlier.

In a resolution adopted on the issue at the party district secretaries meeting in Anna Arivalayam on Saturday, the DMK doubted if the Centre was deliberately not lending clarity on the composition and powers of the CWMA.

“There is lack of guarantee either in the draft scheme or the gazette notification of the Centre on the independent functioning of the CWMA, in which five of the nine members would be representatives of the Union government. One could not dismiss that the five members would only enforce the views of the Centre,” it said.

Subtly criticising Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s description of the notification as “great victory,” Stalin said that it would be meaningless to celebrate the notification as a “great victory” if the state could not ensure the release of water from Mettur dam on scheduled date of June 12. 

Calling the notification, a “preliminary victory,” Stalin, who is also the Leader of Opposition, said the farmers would be reasonably satisfied only if the State releases water for Kuruvai cultivation from the Mettur dam on June 12.