Karnataka should abide by decision: Karunanidhi

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, OCT. 11. Karnataka should abide by the decision of the Cauvery River Authority, the DMK president, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, said today.

The Authority was set up with the guidance of the Supreme Court. If Tamil Nadu approached the Supreme Court now, the Union Government would get an opportunity to affirm that it had ordered release of water, but Karnataka refused. This would lend more credence to Tamil Nadu's case, he said in a statement here.

The fact that the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, had convened the meeting, despite being at the receiving end of an unbecoming criticism from the AIADMK, went to prove that Mr.Vajpayee did not want to politicise an issue which directly affected the lives of farmers in the State, Mr. Karunanidhi said.

Reacting to Ms. Jayalalithaa's contention that the AIADMK had never sought recourse to violence, he said that past incidents including the attack on the August 12 DMK rally in Chennai proved otherwise. An AIADMK speaker had described the August 12 violence as a `trailer,' he said.

Mr. Karunanidhi noted that when his party raised the issue of possible violence during local body polls and demanded Central forces, it was Ms.Jayalalithaa who replied, not the Chief Minister, Mr. Paneerselvam. This only went to make people realise who was the real Chief Minister and who was the puppet, he said.

Ramadoss blames

Jayalalithaa

Our Nagapattinam Staff Reporter reports:

``It will be inappropriate to make cynical remarks about the CRA without comprehending its next move'', Dr. S. Ramadoss, PMK founder, told presspersons in Nagapattinam today.

Admitting that damage had been caused to kuruvai crop in the delta area, he blamed the AIADMK Government and the party general secretary, Ms. Jayalalithaa, for not initiating steps to get water from Karnataka as per the Tribunal award.

Creating an impression that the CRA was not helpful in solving the problem would spell doom for the ryots. ``Already Karnataka is not implementing the interim award. If it does not honour the final award to be given by the tribunal, where will the farmers go ?'', he asked. To keep Karnataka under check with the help of a forum like CRA was essential.

Claiming that the PMK had a track record of creating `winning alliances', he said the DMK front was all set to sweep the civic polls.

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