Chennai, July 22:
PMK President and Rajya Sabha MP Dr Anbumani Ramadoss on Tuesday urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay to convene an all party meeting to discuss the Mekedatu dam row involving Karnataka, which was making all moves to goahead with the project across River Cauvery.
He also wanted the Chief Minister to lead an all party delegation to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union Jal Shakthi Minister to exert pressure on them to stall Karnataka’s move from going ahead with the project.
Talking to reporters at the airport before leaving for the National capital, he said the Mekedatu dam was not a political issue concerning any single party but a matter concerning the livelihood of farmers and an issue that affects the rights and interests of the people of Tamil Nadu.
Though all parties, including ruling TVK’s new found ally, the Congress–which was in power in Karnataka–have opposed the dam project in unison, Anbumani, also a former union Minister, called upon all political parties, including the Opposition DMK and AIADMK to unitedly register their opposition the project.
He also urged Vijay to convene an all party meeting, take representatives of all parties to New Delhi to the meet the Prime Minister and the Jal Shakti Minister on the issue.
He further said that if necessary, all MPs from Tamil Nadu should stage a joint protest in the Parliament complex to safeguard the state’s water rights.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Anbumani urged the Tamil Nadu government to take all steps to secure its due share of cauvery water by insisting its stand at the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) meeting in New Delhi tomorrow.
He said it was condemnable that despite 60 tmc ft increase in storage level in Krishnaragasagar, Kabini, Harangi and Hemavathy dams and inflow of 9,000 cusecs of water into these reservoirs as on Tuesday afternoon, Karnataka has been refusing to release due share of waters to Tamil Nadu.
As per the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court orders, Karnataka has to release 9.91 tmc ft of water in June and 31.24 tmc ft in July, totalling 41.15 tmcft. From June one to till today, Karnataka should have released 31.07 tmc ft water in the Cauvery river. However, on the contrary it has released a meagre 3.44 tmc ft in the last 50 days, a shortfall of 28.63 ft.
Anbumani termed as inhuman, Karnataka’s act of refusing to release waters despite having more than 50 per cent storage in all its reservoirs and pointed that the storage level in the Mettur dam, the lifeline of farmers in Cauvery delta districts, as on today morning was 74.7 ft (reduced by 36.87 tmc ft).
Due to non release of waters from the Mettur dam on the scheduled date of June 12 for irrigation due to poor storage level and due to depleting ground water resources, Kuruvai crops in delta districts have started withering, he said.
Even after this if the Tamil Nadu government remained a mute spectactor, it was akin to betraying farmers, he said, adding, considering the continuous inflow of water into Karnataka’s reservoirs and the plight of farmers in the delta districts, the state government should highlight these true facts at CWMA meeting and secure its due share of waters.