PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss on Thursday strongly condemned Karnataka government’s refusal to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu and described the attitude of Karnataka as totally violating the spirit of federalism.
He told journalists in Cuddalore, the Centre should immediately intervene and ensure Karnataka released water to Tamil Nadu as fixed by the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA)). While Karnataka had conducted two meetings with representatives of all parties on the Cauvery issue in the last two weeks, the Tamil Nadu government had not conducted any such meeting in the last six months.
He felt Chief Minister M.K. Stalin should leave for Karnataka and prevail upon his counterpart there to release water from the Cauvery to save the Kuruvai crop in the State. Farmers in Tamil Nadu are struggling to save standing crops cultivated on over 2 lakh acres in the Delta region, he said.
Referring to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s letter to the Centre that the decision of the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) asking the State to release water at the rate of 5,000 cusecs daily cannot be implemented, Mr. Anbumani pointed out in case Tamil Nadu also took the stand to stop supplying power generated from Kudankulam and Kalpakkam atomic power stations in the State, it would give rise to Law and Order problems.
Replying to a question on Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development Udayanidhi Stalin’s recent comment on Sanatana Dharma, Mr. Anbumani described it as “most irresponsible”. He said it was the belief of individuals and in case it was religious, one should not make any comments that would hurt the feelings of others.
Referring to the controversy that erupted over music composer A.R. Rahman’s music concert in Chennai, he said Rahman was the pride of Tamil Nadu and the greed of the organisers was responsible for the fiasco. The event organisers and the police should own responsibility for the entire incident, he said.
