Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday reiterated her demand for immediate notification of the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal as was committed by the Centre before the Supreme Court.
“I once again urge the Central government to notify the final award of the Cauvery Tribunal immediately in the Union Gazette keeping in mind the interests of the farmers of Tamil Nadu as well as the commitment given before the Supreme Court by the Centre,” the Chief Minister said in a statement here.
Denying Karunanidhi’s allegation that she had done a u-turn by insisting on notification of the Cauvery Tribunal’s final award now contrary to her opposition to the same when it was pronounced in 2007, Jayalalithaa said his allegation was totally contrary to the facts. Jayalalithaa said, indeed, she has been consistently demanding the notification of the final award ever since it was pronounced in February 2007.
“On behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu, I urge Karunanidhi not to create troubles for the notification of the final award in the disguise of doing a favour. Let Karunanidhi keep quiet on this issue. That would be the best service he can offer now,” the Chief Minister said.
The all-party meeting convened by the then DMK government on April 15, 2007, adopted a resolution that the State government would approach the Tribunal first to redress the grievances in the final award and that only if necessary, SC would be approached. The AIADMK representatives at the meeting made it clear that they did not agree with this proposal.
In this connection, Jayalalithaa pointed out the argument of Karunanidhi then that the Tamil Nadu government could not go for an appeal before the SC once the final award got notified by the Centre. However, the AIADMK’s stand on this issue got vindicated when the Tribunal refused to hear the petition filed by the DMK government on July 10, 2007. “This being the fact, Karunanidhi has twisted my stand. This is highly condemnable,” she said.
Further, Karunanidhi who had not sent his MPs delegation to meet the PM during the past four years despite being in power, now has sent the MPs to meet the PM.
While appointment was given to the DMK MPs to meet the PM, a similar requisition from the AIADMK MPs had been kept in the backburner. The DMK chief, who is in the habit of writing letters for anything and everything, had not done it with regard to the notification of the final award so far.