The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Friday said the Centre should take control of the Cauvery Water Management Authority and ensure that Tamil Nadu gets its share of water, PTI reported.
AIADMK Rajya Sabha MP Vijila Sathyananth said during zero hour in the Rajya Sabha that Cauvery is the state’s lifeline. “Centre should take complete management control of Cauvery Water Management Authority,” she added. Sathyanath also called for expediting the proposal to link Godavari river with the Cauvery as this could provide 300 tmc of Godavari water to other parts of the state.
The distribution of Cauvery water has been a long-standing dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. On June 1, 2018, the Centre notified the formation of the Cauvery Water Management Authority in compliance with a Supreme Court order.
The Centre’s move to notify the board came weeks after the Supreme Court accepted its draft scheme on sharing of the river water. The court had asked the government to notify it in the official gazette before the onset of monsoon.
The Centre submitted the draft on May 14, 2018 after several delays that prompted the court to issue warnings. In February 2018, the court had asked the Centre to set up the management board within a month, and later extended the deadline to May 3.
In December, the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution against the Centre’s permission to Karnataka to prepare a detailed project report for its proposed dam in Mekedatu area across the Cauvery. The resolution said the proposal went against the Supreme Court order that states upper riparian states must not implement any project without the consent of lower riparian states.
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