CHENNAI : Even as political parties and general public hoisted black flags in their houses and also waved the same at Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visited Chennai on Thursday demanding that the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) be formed, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami submitted a memorandum to Modi urging him to form the board immediately. He said farmers in Tamil Nadu are awaiting the news of constitution of the board to commence their agricultural operations.
“I earnestly request the Prime Minister to immediately constitute the CMB and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRA) vested with all powers to effectively implement the orders of the tribunal and the Supreme Court,” the Chief Minister said in the memorandum. He met Modi at Chennai airport and made the request.
Recalling the Supreme Court verdict of February 16 directing that a scheme be formulated by the Centre within six weeks to implement the notified final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal as modified by the court, the Chief Minister said that on April 9, the Supreme Court clearly stated that the final order of the tribunal had been merged with the SC judgment. Therefore, constitution of CMB had become an integral part of the SC judgment.
“Farmers of the Delta areas of Tamil Nadu, who are dependent on the Cauvery water for irrigation, are fervently hoping that the above implementation machinery would be constituted by the Centre to enable them to commence the agricultural operations in the next irrigation season, which starts on June 1,” Palaniswami said.
On February 24, when the Prime Minister visited Chennai to launch the Amma Two-Wheeler Scheme, the Chief Minister made an appeal at the function to take speedy steps for forming the CMB and CWRA. However, the Prime Minister did not respond to the request in his speech.