Cauvery dispute blurs party lines

The party lines blurred in the Lok Sabha for a while during zero hour today as members from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka clashed over the sharin...

The party lines blurred in the Lok Sabha for a while during zero hour today as members from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka clashed over the sharing of Cauvery waters after AIADMK leader V. Saroja accused Karnataka of refusing to honour the tribunal award.

Speaker Manohar Joshi rejected Saroja’s notice for an adjournment motion but allowed her to raise the issue. She stated that the tribunal had in 1991 directed Karnataka to release 205 TMC of water to Tamil Nadu but it has consistently refused to do so. According to her, Karnakata is not implementing even the distress sharing formula given by the monitoring committee.

Saroja sought an immediate intervention by the Prime Minister as well as Leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi for the release of water by Karnataka. As she made a spirited attempt to have her say amid the din created by Congress members S. Bangarappa, BJP member Dhananjay Kumar and their colleagues from Karnataka, she drew support from DMK member S.S.P. Palanimanickam and Congress member Mani Shankar Aiyar.

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TDP leader K. Yerran Naidu, who raised the issue of the construction of allegedly illegal dams by Karnataka yesterday, was prompting Saroja throughout.

Congress deputy leader Shivraj Patil, in an obvious reference to Saroja’s appeal to Sonia for an intervention, contended: ‘‘The issue should be taken where it should be. Not to the Opposition benches. Let there be a response from the Government.’’ CPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee also sought Centre’s intervention.