The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Now, parallel approaches to find a solution

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Sunday, Jun 06, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Now, parallel approaches to find a solution

By V.Jayanth

CHENNAI, JUNE 5. As expected, the two Dravidian arch-rivals - the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) - have set out on their own, separate paths to find at least an interim solution to the Cauvery dispute with Karnataka.

After calling a meeting of the leaders of the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) here today, the DMK president, M. Karunanidhi, unveiled plans to send DPA delegations to meet the Prime Minister in New Delhi and the Karnataka Chief Minister in Bangalore.

All 39 MPs in the State will meet the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, while a delegation of party leaders will call on the Chief Minister, Dharam Singh, next week.

The Chief Minister and AIADMK leader, Jayalalithaa, has already written to Dr. Singh, urging him to convene a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority so that at least a distress-sharing formula can be worked out.

Irrigation experts and farmers say that except in limited areas of the old delta, where groundwater is still available, there can be no kuruvai crop worth the name this year.

``The focus must be on securing and storing enough water for a samba crop that will ensure not only enough production of rice but also that farmers and agricultural labour have something to hope for this year,'' says a spokesman of the Delta Farmers Welfare Association.

As the Chief Minister pointed out in her letter to the Prime Minister, just 4.5 tmcft is now available in the Mettur dam.

Even if Karnataka agrees or is persuaded to release 10 tmc now, the supply cannot make a significant difference. A kuruvai crop will still not be possible and saving it towards the end may pose a serious challenge.

The farmers want to be assured 70-90 tmcft for the year, so that they can be sure of at least one major crop. The objective must be to achieve that, they argue.

Given that all the 39 MPs from the State belong to the Opposition, the DPA naturally wants to demonstrate its strength and interest in coming to the rescue of the delta farmers. Their approach is to take Karnataka along and also exert pressure on the Prime Minister to speak to his party's Chief Minister in Bangalore and bring about a temporary truce as it were, by sharing the available water.

For Ms. Jayalalithaa, it cannot be so easy to build bridges with Karnataka after relations with the neighbouring State plummeted to new depths last year. She has already chosen the legal route and that of the authority, though Karnataka flouted the directions of both the Supreme Court and the authority at the height of the crisis in 2003.

The problem in Tamil Nadu is that even the Cauvery issue is ``fully politicised,'' the farmers say. The AIADMK and the DMK never get together to help find a solution. They expect the same problem in Karnataka now, though the political parties there put up a united fight last year to prevent release of water to Tamil Nadu. With a Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government in place in Karnataka, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a strong opposition there. After firmly refusing to release any water last year, the government in Bangalore will find it very difficult to justify sharing water now, unless there is a bountiful monsoon. The BJP will oppose it tooth and nail and the Janata Dal (S), with a strong base in the Mysore-Mandya region, will also not want to be seen as ``sacrificing'' the interests of the State and its farmers.

PWD officials and engineers say that by the middle of July it will be clear whether the southwest monsoon has been ``normal or significant'' and by then Tamil Nadu and its farmers can decide about the samba crop. In the event of a poor monsoon, they will like to see a distress-sharing formula in place by then.

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