The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : AIADMK to join all-party team

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 07, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

AIADMK to join all-party team

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JUNE 6. The All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has agreed to join the all-party delegation, which will meet the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi on Tuesday to request him for early release of Cauvery water by Karnataka for kuruvai cultivation in delta districts.

The AIADMK presidium chairman and Finance Minister, C. Ponnaiyan, in his reply to a letter of the deputy leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Durai Murugan of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, requesting the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, to direct her party Rajya Sabha MPs to join the delegation, said the AIADMK MPs would join the team in the interest of the delta farmers. Mr. Ponnaiyan said the parliamentary party leader, P.G. Narayanan, would be in touch with Mr. Durai Murugan.

Mr. Durai Murugan's letter to the Chief Minister followed a meeting of the Democratic Progressive Alliance here on Saturday.

However, Mr. Ponniyan pointed out ``certain defects'' in Mr. Durai Murugan's letter, which said that it was decided unanimously by all political parties to meet the Prime Minister when the AIADMK, the largest single party in the Assembly, was not even invited for the meeting.

Mr. Ponnaiyan said that the decision to invite the Rajya Sabha MPs of the AIADMK seemed to be an after thought, as all press reports said that 40 Lok Sabha MPs of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry would meet the Prime Minister. Also, no enclosure was found though it was mentioned in the postscript of the letter that the resolution adopted by the DPA was enclosed.

Again it was wrongly stated that the people were apprehensive that Tamil Nadu would not be receiving its due share as per the Cauvery River Authority interim order like in the past couple of years, he said. Firstly, the interim order directing Karnataka was passed by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and not by the CRA as mentioned in the letter. The CRA was constituted only to implement the tribunal's interim order.

Secondly, ``like in the past couple of years'' it implied that the State received its due share before that. This, Mr. Ponniyan said, was not correct. The truth was that ever since the tribunal gave its interim order in 1991, Karnataka did not fully implement it even once.

However, in the interest of the delta farmers, the AIADMK MPs would join the delegation, Mr. Ponniyan concluded.

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