Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday charged that DMK chief M Karunanidhi made “zero contribution” to resolve the Cauvery water dispute despite being in power at the State and Centre for many years.
Giving a point-by-point rebuttal to Karunanidhi’s recent statement on the notification of the final award of the Cauvery tribunal, Jayalalithaa said the original petition on the Cauvery dispute was filed before the Supreme Court on August 4, 1971. However, it was withdrawn by the Karunanidhi government due to the political situation that prevailed then and pressure by then prime minister Indira Gandhi. “Due to the withdrawal of the petition, Tamil Nadu faced a big setback,” she pointed out.
Following this, the Karnataka government and the Centre dodged the Cauvery issue for many useless reasons. So, after 14 years of waiting, the then chief minister, M G Ramachandran (MGR), wrote a letter to the Centre on July 6, 1986 urging that it form a tribunal to solve the issue. Yet, the Centre sought to keep it on the backburner for many years. Following this, farmers’ associations of the Cauvery Delta filed a petition before the SC and the court on May 4, 1990 directed the Centre to set up a tribunal. “Hence, it was MGR’s letter which was the basis for the creation of the tribunal. As such, Karunanidhi had no role to play in this at all,” she added.
Further, when the tribunal gave its interim award in 1991, it was notified by the Centre only due to steps taken by her government. In this regard, Jayalalithaa also recalled that she went on fast for four days in 1993 urging the Centre to establish a scheme to implement the interim award. The Tamil Nadu Assembly also adopted a resolution in this line.
Finally, the Centre agreed to evolve a scheme to implement the interim award of the tribunal on April 9, 1997, when the petition filed by the previous AIADMK government came up for hearing in the SC. However, Karunanidhi diluted the Centre’s scheme comprising experts and agreed for a “political forum (Cauvery River Authority)” during the then BJP government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Protesting against this move, the AIADMK pulled out of the BJP-led government. “As far as I am concerned, coming to power by all means is never my idea. Instead, I wish to be in power to deliver good to the people and I am holding the CM’s post for that reason alone,” she pointed out.
