Cauvery water dispute: Tamil Nadu to file fresh Supreme Court plea, says Minister
Tamil Nadu Law Minister R. Nirmalkumar announced on Saturday that the State government will approach the Supreme Court to secure its share of Cauvery river water. He was speaking to reporters after inaugurating the newly established Chief Minister’s Youth Sports Stadium.
The Minister said Karnataka had continued to defy directives from the Supreme Court and the Cauvery Water Management Authority, which had ordered the release of 3,500 cusecs of water. He noted that Tamil Nadu should have received 17 TMC of water from the river over the past two months.
“The Karnataka government refusing to give water to Tamil Nadu and releasing it only when the Supreme Court is approached has become a recurring story,” Mr. Nirmalkumar said.
The Minister also mentioned that separate legal petitions are being pursued in the apex court regarding the water release and the State’s objection to the proposed Mekedatu check dam project by Karnataka.
He criticised past Tamil Nadu administrations for allowing legal proceedings to lapse once temporary water releases were made. Acting on the directive of Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, the State is now seeking a permanent resolution to the decades-old dispute.
“Political parties in Karnataka have been doing politics using Cauvery water for several decades. However, moving past them, we need to take action to secure our livelihood rights,” he added.
Mr. Nirmalkumar said the Cauvery issue was debated and a unanimous resolution was passed in the Legislative Assembly. He asserted that after discussions in the Assembly, there was no need to convene an all-party meeting on the matter.
He accused some opposition factions of conspiring with the BJP out of fear that Chief Minister Vijay would successfully resolve the crisis. “A party in alliance with the BJP has filed a case in the Supreme Court against that very resolution passed in the House. It is regretful that political parties in Tamil Nadu are acting in support of Karnataka political parties,” he stated.
Clarifying recent electricity bill increases, the Minister said tariffs had not been hiked across the State. He explained that higher consumer bills were strictly the result of increased power consumption. He added that out of 15,000 households subjected to a recent meter re-reading audit in Tamil Nadu, minor discrepancies were recorded in only around 100 cases.
