Cauvery dispute: E Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam lead AIADMK's hunger strike
Top AIADMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami today sat on a hunger strike here leading his partymen on a day-long fast "condemning the Centre" for not setting up the Cauvery Management Board in compliance with the Supreme Court order.
Following Palaniswami, his deputy and AIADMK Coordinator O Panneerselvam arrived at the fast venue in Chepauk here.
The arrival of the top two AIADMK leaders came as a surprise as the party had earlier said that barring them, all other leaders will take part in the fast.
"The hunger strike is to condemn the central government for not forming the CMB," the AIADMK in a statement said.
The names of Palaniswami and Panneerselvam also did not figure in the list of district wise participants of the AIADMK.
Panneerselvam told reporters here that the AIADMK's hunger strike would be a success.
Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar, AIADMK presidium chairman E Madusudanan were among other leaders who have sat on a day long fast here.
In various districts, Ministers and senior leaders representing the districts are leading the hunger strike.
The traders federation too has announced their support by shutting down of shops.Around 21 lakh shops across the state are expected to remain shut in protest against the Centre.
In its February 16 judgement, the apex court had raised the 270 tmcft share of Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced Tamil Nadu's share of Cauvery water.
The apex court granted six weeks time to the Centre to formulate a scheme to ensure compliance of its 465-page judgement, which modified the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal award.
Following the verdict, Tamil Nadu has been urging the Centre to set up the CWMB and CWRC to ensure it received its due share of water from the inter-state river.
The six-week period ended on March 29.
Supreme Court agrees to hear Centre's plea on April 9
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear the Centre's plea seeking clarification on the February 16 verdict regarding setting up of a Cauvery management scheme in the decades-old river water sharing dispute.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud kept for hearing on April 9 the Central government's plea after its counsel referred to divergent views of the concerned states on the issue of setting up of the scheme.
"We will take this matter on April 9 along with the plea of Tamil Nadu," the bench said, when the Centre's counsel Wasim Qadri sought urgent hearing of the plea.
The apex court, in its verdict, had asked the Centre to formulate a scheme to ensure compliance of its 465-page judgement on the decades-old Cauvery dispute. It modified the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) award of 2007 and made it clear that it will not be extending time for this on any ground.
The apex court had on February 16 raised the 270 tmcft share of Cauvery water for Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced Tamil Nadu's share while compensating it by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft groundwater from the river basin, saying the issue of drinking water has to be placed on a "higher pedestal".
With the apex court's verdict, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry would be annually entitled to 404.25 tmcft, 284.75 tmcft, 30 tmcft and 7 tmcft of Cauvery water respectively out of the total of 740 tmcft.
(With PTI inputs)
