Chennai: With the Center failing to set up the Cauvery Management Board within the six weeks deadline set by the Supreme Court, Tamil Nadu politics has virtually heated up over Cauvery water issue with the ruling AIADMK announcing a state-wide hunger strike on April 3 while the DMK decided to show black flags to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit here on April 11.
The state, which had witnessing various forms of agitation for the last few days, saw the protests intensifying further, especially in Cauvery delta districts, on Friday after the Center failed to adhere to the Supreme Court order to set up the CMB and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC) within six weeks, the deadline of which is ended on Thursday. Opposition parties said that the BJP government was delaying the CMB formation with an eye on Karnataka Assembly polls scheduled to be held on May 12.
AIADMK Coordinator and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, at a party event in Madurai, announced that the hunger strike will demonstrate the commitment of the AIADMK government in protecting Tamil Nadu’s rights and will have a huge impact on the country and the Union government. “We will press the center to form the CMB as per the Supreme Court order in our speeches at the fast venues,” he said.
Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami said that the state government would move the Apex court on the issue of CMB. Asked what kind of petition the state intended to file in the SC, he told reporters, “All that is still being discussed with legal experts.” Meanwhile, AIADMK’s Rajya Sabha MP SR Muthukaruppan announced in New Delhi that he would resign his RS membership over the center’s failure to set up CMB. “It is my personal decision… The Prime Minister is refusing to speak on the Cauvery issue. I am resigning for the people of the state,” he told reporters in New Delhi. He said he would be submitting his resignation to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha in a couple of days.
After chairing his party’s executive council meeting here, DMK working president MK Stalin said his party would show black flag to Prime Minister on April 11 for failing to constitute the board. “We also decided to convene a meeting of like-minded parties on Sunday to discuss the next course of action on the Cauvery issue,” he said. Earlier, Stalin, in a statement, asked chief minister to convene a meeting of his cabinet and pass a resolution condemning the BJP government and Prime Minister over the Cauvery issue.
Amid the protests, leaders of various political parties flayed the Center for not honoring the Apex court order, even as PMK cadres, following a call by their party Founder Dr S Ramadoss hoisted black flags in their houses and at their party offices condemning the Center. PMK, after a meeting with farmers’ association representatives, called for a dawn to dusk bandh on April demanding constitution of the CMB.
As the opposition parties attacked the Modi government, BJP state president Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan put up a brave face defending her party’s government at the center saying that only her party could solve the vexatious Cauvery issue. “Parties like DMK and PMK have no moral rights to talk about the CMB. What they were doing when shared power at the center with Congress party?” she asked.
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