Troubled waters

As the Hogenekkal row hots up, the Tamil Nadu government says it is firm on building the drinking water project.

in Chennai

WHEN former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders crossed the Cauvery in a coracle into Tamil Nadu at Hogenekkal in Dharmapuri district on March 16 and shouted slogans demanding that Tamil Nadu should not implement the drinking water supply project it had planned there, they triggered a fresh dispute over the sharing of the rivers waters.

In response, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said in Chennai on March 30 that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government would implement the scheme at any cost, whatever might be the opposition from Karnataka. The Tamil Nadu Assembly passed two resolutions. The first stated that Karnatakas stand went against Indias unity and integrity and the second reminded the Centre that it has a duty to ensure the integrity of the country by stepping forward to protect the rights of the people of Tamil Nadu.

The refrain of Karunanidhis unusually tough speech, made in Tamil, was similar: There is a limit to my patience. I am sure the Centre will recognise the limits of my patience. The Centre should, therefore, intervene in the issue and ensure that the animus [in Karnataka against Tamil Nadu] does not flare up. A spark there should not be allowed to become a conflagration. I ask for this in the name of the unity and integrity of India.

The Tamil Nadu government was surprised by the opposition in Karnataka to the project when political leaders there were aware that the Centre had cleared the scheme and that the Karnakata government had given its no-objection certificate (NOC) to the Centre for the commencement of the project in 1998.

In turn, the Tamil Nadu government had given its NOC for Karnataka to go ahead with its Bangalore water supply project. Both the States were to use the share of Cauvery water allocated to them under the interim award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal for their respective projects.

The Tamil Nadu government sensed a deeper plan behind Yediyurappas protests, particularly his claim that Hogenekkal belonged to Karnataka. (Hogenekkal is an important tourist resort in Tamil Nadu.) Yediyurappa also linked the project with the main Cauvery dispute. His argument was that since Karnataka had filed a special leave petition against the final award of the Tribunal, the issue was sub judice, and so Tamil Nadu could not go ahead with the Hogenekkal project. Karunanidhi decided to fight this out.

S. Ranganathan, secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association, pointed out that objecting to Tamil Nadus plans to provide drinking water to water-starved Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts was one thing, but making territorial claims to Hogenekkal was another and could lead to a controversy of unmanageable proportions. With the Cauvery issue already politicised, Yediyurappa was able to invent a new idea to whip up emotions, he said. Is it an election gimmick or is he trying to confuse the issue? the farmers leader asked. Karnatakas opposition to the project and the violence targeting Tamil establishments in that State brought about a rare unity among the fractious political parties of Tamil Nadu. The ruling DMKs allies the Congress, the Left parties and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and the Opposition parties the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and the State unit of the BJP were united in their support to the State government. Vijayakants Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, film actor Sarath Kumars All India Samuthuva Makkal Katchi and the Tamil film industry have also pledged their support to the government. All the parties were unanimous in their opinion that the State government should press ahead with the project.

On April 4, members of the Tamil film industry, including top actors such as Kamal Hasan, Rajnikanth, Sarath Kumar and Vijaykant took part in a day-long fast organised in Chennai.

Karunanidhi laid the foundation stone for the Rs.1,334-crore project on February 26. The project is expected to provide safe drinking water to about three million people living in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts. The scheme will be a boon to these districts as the ground water there has a high fluoride content. Three municipalities, 17 town panchayats and 1,755 villages will benefit from the scheme which, in the intermediate stage, will provide 127 million litres a day and 160 MLD in the final stage. The water will be drawn from the Cauvery river. Tamil Nadu will draw this water from the share of 1.4 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) allocated to the State in the interim award of the Cauvery Tribunal. A technical highlight of the project is that five boosters will pump the water to a height of 700 metres over a distance of 100 km to ferry it to Hosur.

The Centre had recommended funding of the scheme by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). When Tamil Nadu Rural Development and Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin visited Tokyo in February to study the Tokyo Metro Rail System and seek the JBICs assistance for a Chennai Metro rail project, he also discussed the Hogenekkal project with the banks officials. The JBIC will provide about 85 per cent of the cost of the project, which is estimated at about Rs.1,141 crore.

Trouble began a day before Karunanidhi laid the foundation stone for the project when personnel of the Karnataka Forest Department descended on Manalmedu, near the Hogenekkal water falls in Tamil Nadu, and smashed the huts of women selling cool drinks and fish. Some of the huts were set on fire. On February 28, Karnataka Chief Secretary Sudhakar Rao said legal opinion was being sought on Tamil Nadus plans to execute the project and that a writ petition would be filed in the Supreme Court after the opinion was received. Then came the coracle ride of Yediyurappa, accompanied by former BJP Ministers and legislators, donning life-jackets.

On reaching a place called Idaththittu, which is on the Tamil Nadu side of the border, they shouted slogans saying that they would not allow Tamil Nadu to implement the project and claiming that Hogenekkal belonged to Karnataka. Yediyurappa told reporters that the BJP would seek legal advice on the issue and, if necessary, it would file a writ petition in the Supreme Court. He objected to the laying of the foundation stone for the project on the grounds that Karnatakas special leave petition against the final award of the Cauvery Tribunal was still pending in the Supreme Court.

Soon it became a routine for Kannada activists to cross into Tamil Nadu territory, shout slogans and make claims on Hogenekkal. With the Karnataka Assembly elections scheduled to be held in May, other political parties took up the issue in a game of one-upmanship. Soon a similar unity among political parties surfaced in Tamil Nadu as well. Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president M. Krishnasswamy said that when a propaganda was launched in 2005 that Hogenekkal belonged to Karnataka, the Dharmapuri Collector and officials from Karnataka made a survey of the respective State border and determined that Hogenekkal belonged to Tamil Nadu.

The BJP State unit president, L. Ganesan, who visited Hogenekkal, rejected Yediyurappas claim. There is not an iota of doubt that Hogenekkal belongs to Tamil Nadu. Nothing on earth can block the project from becoming a reality. The BJP will help the Tamil Nadu government in realising it, Ganesan asserted.

The Tamil Nadu government revealed the minutes of the meetings convened by the Centre in 1998 on the issue, which made it clear that both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka could implement the Hogenekkal and Bangalore drinking water supply projects, respectively, from the share of the Cauvery water allotted to them. State Chief Secretary L.K. Tripathy, who disclosed the minutes, said J.H. Patel, who was the then Karnataka Chief Minister, stated in a letter to the Centre, dated April 24, 1998, that Karnataka was using water from its share for executing the Bangalore project and that he was sure Tamil Nadu would not object to the project.

What is good for Karnataka holds good for Tamil Nadu also, argued Tripathy. The logic is that if a State uses water from its allocated share, it is proper. Tamil Nadu is using water from its allocated share. Besides, Tamil Nadu is a downstream State. There is no question of its using any extra water, the Chief Secretary said.

Another meeting held in New Delhi on June 29, 1998, which was attended by the Union Secretary in charge of Water Resources and officials of the two State governments, took the view that the National Water Policy attaches the highest priority to drinking water supply and it was, therefore, considered desirable that the request of Karnataka for the Bangalore drinking water supply scheme and Tamil Nadu for the Hogenekkal drinking water supply should be considered.

On the basis of the NOCs, the Centre convened a meeting at which officials of the two States agreed to allow the other States project to be implemented, Tripathy said. Arun Kumar, who was the Union Water Resources Secretary, in a letter dated September 21, 1998, to the Tamil Nadu government stated that the Ministry of Water Resources had no objection to allow 1.4 tmc ft of the Cauvery water for the Hogenekkal water supply project.

On Yediyurappas claim that Hogenekkal belonged to Karnataka, Tripathy said: We are on the left bank of the river. We are very much within the territory of Tamil Nadu. The project is being done within Tamil Nadu.

The resolution passed in the State Assembly on March 27 pointed out that the Hogenekkal project had received clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Departments of Rural Development and Water Resources in 1998 itself. Besides, the Centre had accepted the State governments proposal for international funding for the scheme.

The resolution said, This scheme will use the water from the Cauvery river flowing within Tamil Nadus territory to provide drinking water to the water-starved people. This scheme will in no way affect Karnataka. Using the Cauvery water, Karnataka is executing the Bangalore drinking water project in several stages. Karnatakas opposition to the Hogenekkal project, which aims at combating fluoride among the people and providing them with drinking water, militates against Indias unity and integrity. Reacting to reports that some fringe groups in Karnataka were damaging Tamil Nadu buses and blocking cinemas from screening Tamil films, Karunanidhi, who was inaugurating a road overbridge in Chennai on March 30, said: I am not sure whether Karnataka has approved the construction of this bridge. It may have the gumption to tell us that we cannot even construct a bridge in Chennai without its approval. We will not be bothered if you [Kannada activists] break buses or even break our bones. We will build the Hogenekkal project at any cost.

He told his political counterparts in Karnataka that if they wanted to derive electoral gains by using the issue and harboured notions that they could prosper by depriving the people of another State of water, Indias unity will not prosper.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on April 2, objected to the harsh language used by Karunanidhi and claimed that it provoked reactions in Karnataka, leading to unhealthy developments.

Karunanidhi denied that any harsh language was used by him or in the resolution passed by the Assembly on April 1. In a letter dated April 2 to Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he quoted The Hindus (March 31) coverage of his speech, which said, The Chief Minister said the scheme had been cleared by the Centre. The Karnataka government had also given its clearance. At this stage, some politicians in Karnataka were trying to sabotage the scheme just to gain political mileage. Their attempts will not succeed, he said.

Karunanidhi told Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi: You will agree with me that no one can misinterpret my words if one goes through my speech carefully. A Chief Minister of a State cannot keep quiet when in the neighbouring State buses from Tamil Nadu are burnt; Tamil cinema houses are ransacked; the Tamil Sangam office is attacked; and Tamils in that State are kept in constant fear. I am confident that you will appreciate the just cause for which Tamil Nadu has been fighting within the democratic and constitutional framework.

Violence broke out in Tamil Nadu, too. A mob ransacked two restaurants owned by a Kannadiga in Chennai. In several places, lawyers led the agitation. In Madurai, lawyers captured buses with Karnataka number plates and defaced the Kannada words.

In Erode, cadre of different political parties blocked buses from Karnataka. Owners of cinema houses decided to stop screening Kannada films. The Cable Television Association decided to black out Kannada channels.