TN takes K'taka refusal to release water to PM

Chennai, July 6: The Tamil Nadu Government has taken up with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Karnataka's ''refusal'' to release water to Mettur dam in the State from Krishna Raja Sagar reservoir, which received increased inflow following an active South West monsoon.

Disclosing this, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said after the media reports suggested that Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had ordered to stop the release of water, he had urged the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre and the Prime Minister to intervene in the matter and take immediate action.

Mr Karunanidhi while answering questions on reports which say that Mr Yediyurappa, after visiting K R Sagar, had ordered that water need not be released to the Mettur dam, said ''I wish the reports were not correct.'' If the reports were correct, then it would not reflect the respect and faith of a Deputy Chief Minister of a State in the Constitution and its federal concept. ''It will only amount to giving a burial to the federal concept,'' he opined.

As Tamil Nadu was not in a position to open Mettur dam for Kuruvai cultivation in the Cauvery delta region, the Centre should take immediate action and ensure that Karnataka releases water to Mettur dam, Mr Karunanidhi said.

On BJP-led Opposition parties levelling charges against UPA Presidential nominee Prathiba Patil, the DMK leader, who played a crucial role in her selection, noted that the Supreme Court had dismissed a petition, filed against Ms Patil's candidature, holding that there was no basis for the charges.

Mr Karunanidhi said that when Mr Manoharlal Sharma, an advocate, moved the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to the Election Commission to reject Ms Patil's nomination, citing reports of corruption charges, a Division Bench dismissed the petition, holding that there was no basis for the charges. If some political parties continued their attack against Ms Patil, even after the Apex Court dismissing the charge as baseless, it was only for political reasons, he said.

Mr Karunanidhi also took exception to a Tamil weekly writing an editorial, criticising the party's rally in the city on July one in support of Ms Patil and to celebrate the election of a woman to the top post, for the first time in India's 60 years of independence.

He said the rally was organised in the evening between 1700 hrs and 1915 hrs, that too after making sufficient way for the general public on the other side of the road and wondered why it had irked the weekly.

It appeared that the weekly editor had not seen processions being taken out during Vinayaka Chathurthi celebrations, the DMK leader said in a sarcastic tone.

UNI

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