CHENNAI: On a day of stormy exchanges, the State Assembly saw Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay smoothing ruffled feathers on Friday by stating he had no intention of politicizing the sensitive Cauvery water sharing dispute with Karnataka and that was what prompted him to initiate steps for a meeting with his counterpart D K Shivakumar at Bengaluru to find an amicable solution to the issue.
During the debate on the Cauvery issue, Vijay intervened when Water Resources Minister N Anand was giving his reply and said that the meeting between the Chief Ministers of both States was proposed only at his behest as an additional effort to explore the possibility of a positive breakthrough through dialogue.
However, replying to the Leader of the Opposition, Udhayanidhi Stalin, the Chief Minister vehemently asserted that he would not compromise on securing the rights of Tamil Nadu on getting water in the Cauvery from Karnataka and in preventing the construction of the Mekedatu dam.
Cauvery was the lifeline of the State and an issue closely connected to the sentiments of the people of the State, Vijay said and added that he had written in his letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi citing the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court order mandating Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu.
When he suggested the meeting in Bengaluru, he made it with the hope of a small sign of rapprochement emerging from it and then leading to the resolution of the dispute, he said, adding that when hostile nations could arrive at negotiated settlements why could not States resolve their differences, he said.
Some people had asked him what if the talks resulted in humiliation but he was prepared to bear any humiliation for the sake of the people of Tamil Nadu, he said. The dispute should be handled with care and there was no point in blaming the previous government for the failure in arriving at a settlement, he said.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
