Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam told the state Assembly on Monday that it was not possible to link the no-confidence motion, moved by the Telugu Desam Party in the Lok Sabha, with the demand for the Cauvery Management Board.
“The no-confidence motion is purely connected with the issue of Andhra Pradesh and it has nothing to do with the constitution [of] Cauvery Management Board and the same could not be linked with it,” he said, according to The Hindu. Panneerselvam rejected Opposition leader and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Working President MK Stalin’s suggestion that the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam must support the motion against the Centre.
Stalin had said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami should back the no-trust motion so that the Centre could be pressured to set up the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee. On March 15, the state Assembly had passed a resolution asking the central government to set up the two bodies. Palaniswami had added that the Centre had not yet set up the committees because of the upcoming Assembly elections in Karnataka.
Panneerselvam, however, told the Assembly on Monday that the state should wait for the Supreme Court’s six-week deadline to end on March 29. “We have waited so far and let us wait till the last date,” he said. “As far as the Cauvery Water dispute is concerned we will not give up the rights secured by our leader Amma [former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa]. The AIADMK MPs have been raising the issue for the last one week and the Lok Sabha proceedings have been affected. If it does not happen we will once again convene an all-party meeting to chalk out the next course of action.”
On February 16, the Supreme Court had ordered the Centre to set up a Cauvery Management Board within six weeks to ensure that its ruling to allocate the river water to the two states is implemented. The court had directed Karnataka to release 177.25 thousand million cubic feet of Cauvery water per year to Tamil Nadu from its inter-state Biligundlu dam. So, Tamil Nadu will get 404.25 tmcft of Cauvery water instead of the 419 tmcft allotted by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in 2007.
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