Umapathy Ganesan, counsel appearing for Tamil Nadu, has stated on Friday that the suit filed by the State in regard to the Neyyar river issue to a Bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir had sought permission to file and circulate a rejoinder to the counter filed by Kerala. The case is coming up for hearing before the chief justice on Monday. The Bench has in turn permitted him to circulate the same. Later, the counsel filed the rejoinder of Tamil Nadu before the registrar.
K S Ramkumar, vice chairman, the Cauvery Technical Cell cum Inter State Waters Wing, the Water Resources Department, Tamil Nadu, who filed the rejoinder, stated that the submission made Kerala, that the application is liable to be dismissed as it proceeds on an erroneous foundation that river Neyyar is an inter-state river, is misplaced. The Neyyar project is covered under sub-section (2) of section 108 of the State Re-organisation Act, 1956 (SRA, 1956), and Tamil Nadu and its inhabitants have legal rights to continue with the existing arrangement under the Neyyar Irrigation Project. The Neyyar Irrigation Project caters to the needs of both Kerala and Tamil Nadu in respect to the area transferred to Tamil Nadu, which was otherwise part of the erstwhile undivided Travancore-Cochin Province, Ramkumar stated.