Centre should take over Periyar Dam: BJP

Madurai, Nov 18 (UNI) Calling for Central takeover of the Periyar Dam, the Tamil Nadu BJP today said this alone would be a permanent solution immediately paving the way for hiking the storage to the Supreme Court-ordered interim level of 142 ft from the present reduced 136 ft.

Talking to newspersons here, BJP State President L Ganesan said the Kerala Government had no right to intervene or prevent Tamil Nadu from increasing the storage in the Dam as per the Court order.

Stating that he did not expect the proposed talks to yield any positive result going by past experience, he said the party had agreed for negotiations since they were being held in the presence of the Union Water Resources Minister.

The BJP leader regretted that Kerala's obstinacy had led to water being drained into the Arabian Sea.

On the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka, he said the party opposed the Central Government extending any kind of military assistance to the island nation, for arms supplied would be ''used against the minority Tamils.'' No political party in Tamil Nadu would accept the LTTE as the sole representative of the Sri Lankan Tamils, he claimed but expressed the view that the Tigers should team up with other Tamil political parties and outfits so as to bring pressure on Colombo and to arrive at a lasting solution to the ethnic issue.

Opposing quotas to non-Hindus, he said ''Muslims and Christians can be included in the ambit of reservations, if they openly admitted that the caste system prevailed in their communities.'' He urged the Muslims to introspect on what prevented their socio-economic development and advancement. In his reasoning, their backwardness was due to the triple talaq system and madarasas.

In the same vein, Mr Ganesan, opposed clemency for Afzal Guru, awarded capital punishment in the Parliament attack case and criticised the secular parties, alleging that their stand amounted to supporting militants.

Adverting to GE crops, he charged the Centre with attempting to destroy the farm sector through GE seeds. Once allowed entry, the GE seed firms would turn the farmers dependent upon them, he warned and asked why the Government should encourage them when it had been proved that GE seeds contained toxic substances.

Mr Ganesan expressed the hope that the DMK Government would wipe off the stigma it had earned during the recent civic elections, which witnessed unprecedented violence on a massive scale, by conducting the elections to cooperative societies in a fair manner.

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