PUDUKKOTTAI: CPI state secretary Mutharasan has said the decision taken and announced to open Mettur dam, without consulting anyone, was the reason for the friction between the Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) and the Left parties.
Addressing a media conference at Pudukkottai on Tuesday, he said one-crop samba cultivation requires 150 days of water, and added that as the Mettur dam was opened on September 1, the farmers will not derive any benefit from it.
Mutharasan said they advised not to rush into opening the Mettur dam on September 1, suggesting, instead, that it could be opened later. Various political parties also emphasised this, and editorials were written in newspapers about it, he pointed out.
The parties also explicitly stated that the dam should not be opened in a hurry and should only be opened after the water level reaches 100 feet, he said.
For the water release to be actually useful, 15,000 to 18,000 cusecs of water must be released so that it flows at the bed level of the rivers. Only then will the water reach the irrigation canals, and from there flow into the field channels (kanni vaikkal), eventually reaching the agricultural fields. Because it was opened in a rush, the water is currently flowing weakly along the edges of the rivers, resembling typical summer flow, he added.
He pointed out that the lakes in the delta region that dried up in the summer remain so. The farmers cannot plant saplings anymore, so direct sowing is the only option, he explained.
The CPI leader wanted pressure to be exerted in two ways – legally and politically – to get the legitimate share of Cauvery water from Karnataka, but the government was not ready to exert political pressure. It was only trying to pursue the legal route, he criticised.
People are watching closely to see why the TVK does not criticise the BJP. The party might think that speaking out against the BJP is like playing with fire. We will have to wait and see whether the TVK speaks out against the BJP in the coming days, he said.
The Union government has double standard, he charged.
The Governor is merely a tool of the Centre. Therefore, listening to their instructions, he would have immediately signed the legislative bills under the current TVK administration. It remains unknown when the Governor will completely stop signing them, he added.
He said no one was under the illusion that the TVK will win the ensuing by-elections as both candidates from the Left parties will definitely win. The fact that the public drove away the two TVK candidates when they went to campaign is proof of this, he said.
To a question, Mutharasan said the Election Commission must review if an individual can contest from two constituencies. That aside, what is the purpose of by-elections in the other six constituencies? Individuals win an election representing one party today, resign immediately, join another party, and are now contesting as candidates in the same constituency. Do they view voters as human beings or as something else? The ink on the voters’ fingers did not dry, nor the ink on the candidates’ paperwork. Even before that, they resigned from their posts, joined an Opposition party, and are now contesting as candidates. This is a destruction of democracy. Even the court has criticised this, he said.
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