Accusing the DMK and Congress of failing to protect Tamil Nadu’s interests in the Mullaiperiyar dam dispute with neighbouring Kerala, AIADMK general secretary and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday called upon the electorate to vote for her party in the upcoming Parliamentary polls.
She also hit out at the two parties for not saving the ethnic Tamils from being annihilated by the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka.
Canvassing votes for her candidates - M Udayakumar and R Parthiban, on a whirlwind tour of the Dindigul and Theni constituencies respectively, Jayalalithaa charged the Congress-led UPA and the DMK, which was its ally until last year, with acting against the welfare of people.
The storage and release of water from the Mullaiperiyar dam was the life and soul of the farmers in the southern districts, she said. Assailing the DMK for proclaiming in its election manifesto that it would strive for raising the water storage level in the dam to 152 feet, Jayalalithaa said the party had not taken any measure on this in the past.
“Only during the previous AIADMK regime, I had approached the Supreme Court and obtained an order to raise the water level in the dam from 136 feet to 142 feet. Later, after inspecting the dam, an expert committee had said that the water level could be raised up to 152 feet,” Jayalalithaa said.
Again it was the AIADMK government which challenged Kerala’s Assembly resolution to retain the capacity of the dam to 132 feet. This petition was still pending in the apex court.
“The DMK was in power from 2006 to 2011 and was also a member of the Union Cabinet till March 2013. But both the DMK and Congress did not take any efforts to ensure that the water storage level was raised. Now the DMK is trying to brainwash the people claiming it would enhance the storage capacity to 152 feet,” the AIADMK leader charged.
Using the opportunity to rap the DMK and Congress on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, Jayalalithaa questioned why the Dravidian party continued to share power with the Congress when the Tamils were annihilated in Sri Lanka. She also criticised the US-sponsored resolution against Lanka in the United Nations.