Karunanidhi Denies Blaming Patel For Cauvery Talks Failure

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi yesterday denied that he had blamed his Karnataka counterprt, J H Patel, for the breakdown of the Cauvery talks and reiterated that it was Karnatakas insistence on getting Tamil Nadu to agree to the construction of a dam at Megedatu that led to the failure of the negotiations.

Karunanidhi was replying in the state assembly to members, who wanted the Chief Minister to clarify his earlier statement to the House in the light of the Karnataka major irrigation minister K N Nage Gowda, criticising Karunanidhi for his alleged accusation against Patel.

Karunanidhi said the Cauvery dispute was not between himself and Patel, but between the two states. They remained good friends, and neither of them would sacrifice their states interests for the sake of friendship.

However, it was regrettable that Nage Gowda had issued the statement based on either imaginary or distorted accounts of his speech to the assembly a couple of days ago while

replying to the discussion on the Appropriation Bill, Karunanidhi said.

The main issue was Karnataka going ahead with the construction of several dams without Planning Commissions approval and in violation of its agreement with Tamil Nadu, and Nage Gowdas statement was not a cultured act, he said.

Stating that his objections to the Megedatu project, Karunanidhi said that the dam was to be located above Mettur, and once completed, only 70 tmc ft of water would reach Mettur.

This was why from the days of late M G Ramachandran, the state had been consistently opposed to the idea.

While he was proceeding with the five rounds of talks with Patel, he was going step by step, but the Karnataka side raised the Megedatu issue in the last round, but he and the public works minister Durai Murugan rejected it.

Tamil Nadu had come with a counter-proposal to store rain water at Hogenekkal or Rasimanal on the Tamil Nadu side of the border, he said. If the state had agreed to the Megedatu dam, Karnataka might initially release some water, but once it was completed a decade or so later, there was every possibility that the then regime might deny Tamil Nadu any water.

This was why the talks were wound up and the state decided to go to the Supreme Court to get the interim award of the Cauvery Tribunal implemented, Karunanidhi said.

We were not prepared to abandon the states interests, Karunanidhi said. He hoped that the court would give a fair ruling which would not affect the interests of the farmers of both the states.

Denying the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary J Jayalalithas charge that he had betrayed Tamil Nadus interests by going in for negotiations, Karunanidhi said that he had acted on the Supreme Courts suggestion to hold talks with the Karnataka Chief Minsiter, and even while doing so, he had declared that the parleys would be within the scope of the tribunals interim orders.