The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Will PMK's suggestion hold water?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Will PMK's suggestion hold water?

By R. Ilangovan

SALEM, SEPT. 13. The Pattali Makkal Katchi's call to the Centre to ``acquire'' powers to adjudicate the issue of sharing river waters among the States through a new legislation has surprised its allies in the Democratic Progressive Alliance.

At a time when issues of Centre-State ties have occupied centre-stage, the PMK's call (unanimously endorsed by its just-concluded executive meeting at Yercaud) to ask the Union Government to pass the legislation, which will effectively remove ``water'' from the State List, has raised eyebrows among not only its allies but also those who have been clamouring for more powers to the States.

``It is a hasty decision," points out a senior leader of an alliance party. Even the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam conference here, which sought more powers to the States, remained silent on the Cauvery issue. It just asked the Union Government to expedite linking of rivers with priority to the ones in the south.

Why this stance

Political analysts feel the frustration over the century-old dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over sharing Cauvery waters could have made the PMK think-tank adopt this ``extraordinary stance" of becoming the Union Government's advocate. ``The PMK is well aware that with the existing legislation and the powers conferred thereunder, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government, in which the PMK is a constituent, cannot resolve the issue. After all, it is a Congress-led coalition, which is in power again in Karnataka and the embarrassment is quite palpable,'' points out the leader.

The PMK's suggestion comes at a time when the Centre is contemplating bringing inter-State rivers in the Concurrent List. The issue is expected to figure prominently at a forthcoming meeting of the Commission on Centre-State Relations. There is also a proposal to include in the Concurrent List drinking water, water harvesting structures and irrigation systems by amending Schedule 7 of the State List. Water is a State subject.

A senior PMK functionary, however, says the executive's demand is well within the constitutional framework. ``As per the PMK's suggestion, the Union Government must seek powers by passing the legislation under Entry 56, List I of the 7th schedule of Article 246,'' says a legal luminary-cum-social activist.

He says that under Entry 56, List I of Article 246 and Article 262, Parliament enacted the River Boards Act, 1956 and the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956, under which the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and other river tribunals have been constituted.

Though the Cauvery dispute has eluded a solution for close to a century now, the PMK's suggestion is against the ``very concept of the federal structure", points out the legal activist.

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