Tamil Nadu   

BJP begins padayatra to prevent dam construction

Special Correspondent

Stir to protect livelihood of State people dependent on the river

GUDIYATHAM: Bharatiya Janata Party activists on Thursday embarked on a four-day padayatra, led by State president C.P. Radhakrishnan, towards the Andhra Pradesh border, to urge the Centre and the Tamil Nadu Government to prevent the neighbouring State from constructing a dam across the Palar at Kuppam.

Earlier, addressing a public meeting here, Mr. Radhakrishnan said the agitation was not against the Andhra Pradesh Government or the Telugu-speaking people. It was to protect the livelihood of the people of Tamil Nadu, who are dependent on the Palar for drinking water and irrigation needs.

He recalled that the Coleroon accommodated 4 lakh tmcft water during the recent floods and saved Karnataka. The Palar's length was 43 km in Andhra Pradesh and 23 km in Karnataka, but it traversed 220 km in Tamil Nadu. The BJP would no longer allow a situation where the river in Tamil Nadu is used as a flood and drainage outlet of the other two States.

"If the Indian National Congress was really national as its name claimed, it should have prevented Andhra Pradesh's move to construct a dam across the Palar," he said. Karnataka had already constructed dams across the Cauvery and the Palar. The Kerala Government was refusing to permit the diversion of west flowing rivers to Tamil Nadu. If the trend continued and the neighbouring States started constructing dams across inter-State rivers, there would be no rivers in Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Radhakrishnan asked Andhra Pradesh to recall the problems it faced on account of Maharashtra's refusal to permit the diversion of water from the Krishna and the Godavari to the State.

He faulted the Democratic Progressive Alliance in Tamil Nadu for not taking a firm stand in favour of the State on the dam issue, "in order to protect the posts of the 12 Central Ministers from Tamil Nadu." Whatever be the BJP stand on the issue, the State unit would not allow the dam to come up. He asked whether TNCC president G.K. Vasan could make a similar statement on behalf of the State Congress.

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