Centre "completely supportive" of demand for notifying award

"The Centre has completely supported it. It will be done after getting the approval of the Ministry of Law and Justice...(Centre) will certainly do it," he said.

Addressing a meeting at the TNCC headquarters Sathyamurthy Bhavan here to explain the achievements of Congress-led UPA, he accused Karnataka of shedding crocodile tears on this matter and expressed confidence of a favourable verdict for Tamil Nadu in a case filed in the Supreme Court in connection with the water-sharing dispute.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had said recently that the delay in notifying the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in the Central Gazette had deprived the rights of Tamil Nadu on Cauvery and also in receiving the due share of the river water.

On the issue of Kudankulam nuclear power project, which has been facing protests from locals, Vasan said the plant will start producing power 'soon' and described the Indo-Russian joint venture as a "great achievement" of UPA.

While power-starved Tamil Nadu will receive a "large chunk" of electricity from there, Congress' state unit was striving to ensure that the entire power generated there was allocated to the state, he said.

He said a dry port at Sriperumbudur, named after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, would come up with an investment of Rs 1000 million.

Earlier, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, who highlighted the power crisis in Tamil Nadu, said her ministry had granted environmental clearance to five proposed power projects in the state including in north Chennai, all totalling 1462 mw. This was to ensure there were no power cuts in the state, she said.