THE issue relating to the waters of the Cauvery is one on which the ruling party and the Opposition in Tamil Nadu seldom see eye to eye, whether it is the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) or its rival the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) that is in power. Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa, who had not consulted other parties on the issue, was forced, by change of circumstances, to revise her stand. The Karnataka government's decision to suspend the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu compelled Jayalalithaa to call an all-party meeting on September 20 to discuss the course of action.
Karnataka's decision caused disbelief and anger at the Secretariat in Chennai. After a Cabinet meeting, Jayalalithaa announced the all-party meeting, to be followed by an all-party delegation meeting Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to present a memorandum to him. She said Tamil Nadu would file a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against the Karnataka government for ``wilfully disobeying'' the Supreme Court's order and the CRA's directive.
Jayalalithaa alleged that farmers' agitations near the Kabini reservoir and the Krishnarajasagar reservoir in Karnataka to block release of water to Tamil Nadu were ``stage-managed'' and demanded the dismissal of the Karnataka government. She said: ``If a State government is incapable of maintaining law and order, it should resign or be dismissed. Citing a law and order problem cannot be a justification for wilfully flouting and disobeying the orders of the Tribunal, the Supreme Court and the Cauvery River Authority.''
Although the DMK boycotted it and the Congress(I) walked out, there was a semblance of unity at the all-party meeting. It passed a resolution demanding that the Centre should amend the rules of the CRA so that ``the Central government can take over the reservoirs in Karnataka and release water to Tamil Nadu'' as per the orders of the Supreme Court and the CRA. The resolution said this had become necessary ``since the mechanism for implementing the orders of the highest judicial body of this country cannot be left to the mercy of a rival State government.''
The meeting was not without acrimony. It dropped a resolution seeking the dismissal of the Karnataka government after a walkout by the Congress(I) representatives and opposition from other parties. (The Congress(I) is the ruling party in Karnataka.) Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president E.V.K.S. Ilangovan said it was ``unacceptable'' that a State government should demand the dismissal of another State government. The Congress(I), however, later joined the all-party team that met Vajpayee after the resolution demanding the dismissal of the Karnataka government was withdrawn.
Jayalalithaa told the meeting that Karnataka should have provided 6.250 tmc ft at Mettur from September 4 to 8 as per the Supreme Court's order, and 8.8 tmc ft from September 9 to 19 according to the CRA's directive. But it had released only 4.82 tmc ft. There was thus a deficit of 10.22 tmc ft. Besides, the Karnataka government decided to stop the release of water.
THE demand that the Centre take over the reservoirs in Karnataka is not new. The draft scheme framed in May 1997 under the Inter-State Water Disputes Act proposed empowering the CRA to take over the regulation of structures and reservoirs in a riparian State in case of non-compliance with the CRA's directions.
The then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, welcomed it, but his Karnataka and Kerala counterparts strongly opposed it. The proposal was dropped when the CRA was set up in August 1998.
Karunanidhi said the DMK was boycotting the all-party meeting because the Opposition parties were ``not errand boys at the beck and call'' of the AIADMK. He accused Jayalalithaa of ruining the chances of forging a consensus on the issue. She had made a ``mess'' of the issue and continuously ignored the CRA.
Jayalalithaa accused the ten Union Ministers from Tamil Nadu of inaction while Vajpayee succumbed to pressure from Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna. The Union Ministers belonging to the DMK, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), and the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) should have convinced the Prime Minister not to hold the CRA meeting, she said. She was scathing in her criticism of Karunanidhi who she said appeared to be more concerned with ``irrelevant matters'' such as the Hindu religion and the mode of celebrating Vinayaka Chathurthi, at a time when the Cauvery tangle was a burning issue.
Jayalalithaa appears to have won this round as the Opposition parties have no credible explanation in response to her allegations. The stock allegation of the Opposition leaders is that Jayalalithaa did not convene an all-party meeting to discuss the issue. They accuse her of adopting a ``wrong approach'' by taking unilateral decisions for which she paid the price.
Political observers say that Jayalalithaa was not interested in forging a political consensus on the Cauvery issue because if her strategy paid off, then she could get the entire credit. On the other hand, there were compelling reasons for Krishna to convene all-party meetings in Bangalore.
WITH the political sparring on the Cauvery issue, attention has been deflected from the grim situation prevailing in the delta districts of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Tiruchi, and the Karaikkaal region of Pondicherry.
About 15 lakh landless peasants are jobless in the delta districts in Tamil Nadu from June because there was no water to raise the `kuruvai' paddy crop. Tamil Nadu should have received 120 tmc ft from Karnataka from June to September 15, according to the Tribunal's Interim Order but received only 35 tmc ft.
Farmers said they would be in dire straits if Karnataka did not release water and there was no rain. Where there were local showers in places such as Mayiladuthurai, Mannargudi and Needamangalam, farmers started ploughing the field for direct sowing for the samba crop. Some farmers with pumpsets have raised nurseries for samba, hoping to keep them alive for the next 20 days.
While it takes 125 to 135 days for the medium samba variety of paddy to mature, the long duration variety takes 155 days. Cultivation of the long duration samba crop is now uncertain. S. Ranganathan, Secretary, Cauvery Delta Farmers' Welfare Association, said: ``If Karnataka can assure us of 0.8 tmc ft every day till October 31, we can salvage about 50 per cent of the crop [which works out to 6 lakh acres, or about 2.4 lakh hectares] by direct sowing. But water from Karnataka alone will not do. It should be coupled with the north-east monsoon.'' However, the damage has been done.
