The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday decided to file a contempt petition against the central government after it failed to meet a Supreme Court-set deadline to set up the Cauvery board, The Hindu reported. On February 16, the Supreme Court had ordered the Centre to set up a Cauvery Management Board by March 29 to ensure its ruling on the allocation of the river water to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka is properly implemented.
On March 15, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Tamil Nadu government had passed a resolution to ask the Centre to set up the Cauvery Management Board and a Cauvery Water Monitoring Committee. The Cauvery water sharing dispute has been going on for 22 years now.
The Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s Working President MK Stalin had announced his party’s decision to boycott the presentation of the state Budget over Tamil Nadu’s inaction on the Cauvery water dispute.
Meanwhile, actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth said that the formation of the Cauvery management board is “only acceptable just solution for us [Tamil Nadu]” in the inter-state river water dispute.
In February, the Supreme 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 now 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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