Durai Murugan

CHENNAI: The Centre should act as a "benevolent dictator" while dealing with inter-State issues, especially river water disputes, Public Works Department Minister Durai Murugan said here on Wednesday.

Regretting that politics was behind the majority of inter-State river water disputes, he said technocrats were unable to speak out, fearing they would incur the displeasure of political masters.

Mullaperiyar issue

Referring to the Mullaperiyar dispute, he said despite the Supreme Court's ruling that the storage could be increased to 142 feet, Kerala was not allowing Tamil Nadu to do so. The situation was similar in the case of the Cauvery water dispute. In both the cases, farmers in Tamil Nadu were the worst affected.

Such attitude of States would place a question mark on the nation's sovereignty, he said at a national conference on `Eco-environmental impact on water resources potential towards re-linking and integrating its hydrological cycle'.

Encroachments

Expressing concern over the increasing encroachment on water bodies, the Minister said a widespread area had been affected, resulting in floods and damages.

Tanks constructed by ancient rulers were being misused for dumping garbage by a majority of the municipalities.

It was the duty of everyone to protect the water bodies. Otherwise, the State would face severe water shortage in the next 25 years. Awareness should be created among people of the need to protect water sources.

Ancient traditions

Anna University Vice-Chancellor D. Viswanathan regretted that the ancient tradition of harvesting water by constructing tanks and sinking step-wells and recharge wells had vanished.

A century ago, half the areas were irrigated from tanks. Now this was just 10 per cent. Due to lack of storage capacity barely 10 per cent of the rainwater was stored and utilised.

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