AIADMK to stage protest over TN govt's failure to receive water share from neighbouring states

Chennai, May 25 (IANS) AIADMK will organise protests across Tamil Nadu over the state government’s alleged failure to receive its share of water from neighbouring states of Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Sources said that AIADMK will hold a meeting on Monday and chalk out a protest programme against the government.

“Stalin government has failed to secure the water share from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Karnataka even though friendly governments for the DMK are in power in these states,” a senior leader of AIADMK said.

He said that the party’s General Secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) would lead the protest.

He said that Mullaperiyar is a nagging issue vis-a-vis Kerala, with Karnataka the Cauvery River water sharing issue while the Pallar River is the bone of contention with Andhra Pradesh.

“Tamil Nadu has ended up in a losing position in all these water-sharing proposals and the state government is not doing anything to get relief for the people and that is why we are planning an agitation across the state,” he said.

Tamil Nadu is a lower riparian state and the neighbouring states have scant regard for the decades-old treaties and accords over the interstate water disputes. The Supreme Court directives are also not being properly acknowledged by the neighbouring states.

There was a pact in 1892 between the then Mysore state and the Madras Presidency wherein no construction activities were allowed without the consensus of the riparian states.

Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department officials told IANS that the upper riparian states are not considering the lower riparian states and that they have no regard for the pact between the then Mysore state and the Madras Presidency.

Officials also said that the Supreme Court has in its orders in 2006 and 2014 directed the Kerala government not to undertake any construction on Mullaperiyar dam.

The AIADMK leader said that the DMK is in an alliance with the CPI-M and the Congress in the INDIA bloc while the CPI-M-led Left Front government is in power in Kerala and a Congress government is ruling Karnataka.

“The opposition will highlight the failure of the Tamil Nadu government to get the state its due share even after friendly governments are in power in neighbouring states,” he said.