Actor Kamal Haasan – who recently launched a political party, Makkal Needhi Maiam – on Wednesday urged the Centre to “honour and respect” the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Cauvery water dispute. The top court had ordered the government to set up a Cauvery Management Board within six weeks to ensure that its ruling is implemented.
The actor’s statement came after Union Minister Nitin Gadkari refused to spell out a time frame for establishing the board. “It is a very difficult task and it is not a very easy question,” Gadkari told The Hindu on Monday. “But my track record is whatever I have taken in the hands, I have completed the project. But it is a big task. I do not want to give any assurance for that.”
The minister said he empathises with the plight of farmers in Tamil Nadu as he himself belongs to a family of farmers, and knows about the problems caused by lack of water for drinking and irrigation.
“We are given to understand that central minister Nitin Gadkari has stated that the same [setting up the board] is not required,” Haasan said in a statement issued by his party. “This is unwarranted and unjust.”
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami had announced on February 22 that he would lead an all-party delegation, including representatives of various farmers’ associations, to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urge him to immediately set up the Cauvery Management Board. The state has long pushed for the board to be set up.
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