Tamil Nadu government would move the Supreme Court very soon seeking a direction to Karnataka to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, state Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said on Tuesday. “There is no other option and it is inevitable to move the Supreme Court on the issue,” she told reporters in Chennai.
She said the Prime Minister had assured the all party MPs delegation from the state that he would ask Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna to release water to Tamil Nadu. She demanded immediate abolition of Cauvery River Water Authority (CRWA) in the present form describing it as a toothless wonder. Jayalalithaa said she had always opposed the CRWA in the present form as it did not have powers to instruct the states concerned to release water.
“It is a disgrace and shame that the authority has met only twice even though three years have elapsed since its constitution,” she said. Jayalalithaa said Vajpayee had ignored her opposition to the formation of the authority even when her party was a constituent of the BJP-led government at the Centre.
Demanding an authority as envisaged in 1997, she said the 1997 draft had a provision for the authority to instruct Karnataka to release water, but this provision had been deleted by subsequent authority. Bureau Report