The Cauvery Rights Retrieval Committee has sought a clarification from Chief Minister M.K. Stalin concerning the handling of the Cauvery waters issue by the State government.
In a statement here on Thursday, CRRC coordinator P. Maniarasan pointed out that Additional Chief Secretary (Water Resources Department) Manivasan, after participating in the Cauvery Water Management Authority meeting held in New Delhi on July 24, said that Tamil Nadu had sought the release of 45.95 tmcft of water due for August.
The Additional Chief Secretary had said that the CWMA had been requested to monitor the release of water from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee would be insisting on this with the Karnataka government at the meeting to be held on July 30.
Going by the Additional Chief Secretary’s statement, it was evident that Tamil Nadu’s representatives had not, at the July 24 meeting, raised the issue of Karnataka’s refusal to comply with the CWMA or CWRC’s directions in the past even when their dams received copious inflows.
Hence, the Chief Minister should clarify whether the Additional Chief Secretary had decided on his own not to make any complaints against Karnataka or he had been ‘directed’ not to raise Karnataka’s adamant stand at the CWMA meeting, Mr. Maniarasan said.
‘Depute a team’
Further, the Committee urged the Chief Minister to depute a team of officials to Mekedatu to assess the situation at the site where the upper riparian State had proposed a dam across the Cauvery. He pointed out that the Central Water Commission in reply to an RTI query from Vignesh of Periyakulam had categorically stated that ‘sanction had not been accorded’ for the construction of a dam at Mekedatu.
In case the ground situation at Mekedatu was different, Tamil Nadu should take steps to stall even the preliminary work for the construction of the dam by approaching the Union Government and should not hesitate to lead a “people’s movement” against the Mekedatu dam construction in association with all political parties and farmers’ associations, he added.
