Centre must solve inter-state water 'tussles'

Chennai, Nov 2: Marumalarchi DMK General Secretary and former MP, Vaiko has urged the Centre to bring about a constitutional amendment for empowering it to implement the orders of the River Water Disputes Tribunals (RWDT) and Supreme Court judgements, to solve the inter-state river water disputes.

Participating in the Golden Jubilee celeberation of the formation of the Tamil Nadu state here last night, Mr Vaiko criticised the Tamil Nadu Government's move to hold discussions with the Kerala Government on raising the storage level in the Mullaperiyar dam.

The question of talks does not arise when the apex Court has given a clear ruling in favour of Tamil Nadu, he claimed.

He alleged that Chief Minister Karunanidhi was adopting a lethargic attitude towards protecting interest of Tamil Nadu and its people and said Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at New Delhi twice and attempted to apprise the latter of Kerala's stand on the issue.

However, Mr Karunanidhi has ''kept mum'' and has not even written a letter countering Mr Achuthanandan, to the Prime Minister, he charged.

He said Mr Karunanidhi had convened the all party meeting only because of continuous pressure by the Opposition and the leader of the ruling DMK's ally, PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss, he added.

Mr Vaiko said ''Mr Karunanidhi is capable of pressurising the Centre for getting ''plum portfolios'' in the union cabinet, but he had failed miserably to protect the interests of Tamil Nadu especially in the Mullaperiyar issue.

He said it was the duty of the Centre to implement the Supreme Court order on the Mullaperiyar issue and warned that if the Centre failed to do its duty, people would lose faith in it.

This would not be good for national integrity and unity, he claimed.

UNI