Puducherry Chief Minister slams Centre for contesting Supreme Court order

In an informal chat with media persons, Narayansamy said that the Centre is now defying the directions of the Apex court for which the Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi should give an explanation. 

The CM said the SC had already directed to set up a Cauvery Management Board and it is the duty of the Centre to execute the orders. The stance of the Centre that a separate law be enacted to set up the Board could not be accepted. 

In the absence of such a board every year Tamil Nadu and Puducherry were forced to move the court for the release of water and on certain occasions, after the apex court order water was released and sometimes Karnataka refused to open its reservoirs.

This time, Karnataka defied the orders of the Supreme Court and was refusing to release water for Tamil Nadu. The Cauvery water tribunal had also directed the setting up of a boar which would help monitoring release of water every month. He said Karaikal is severely affected because of the failure of Karnataka to release water, which need to be condemned strongly. Puducherry is also a part in the petition filed in the SC. As far as Puducherry is concerned, Centre should resolve the issues prevailing between the states and should not act in favour of a particular state, he added. 

Earlier on Sunday, the Puducherry government said it has chosen PWD Chief Engineer P Swaminathan as the Union Territory’s nominee for the Cauvery Management Board This was the first time that Puducherry had been getting representation in a river water panel to make out its case and to ensure the share in the river water on which Karaikal depended for farm operations.