Ask SC to implement Cauvery order: CPI

Senior CPI leader D Pandian speaking to reporters noted that the top court would be on vacation between May and June while it has listed the hearing of the Contempt plea filed by the state for May 3. 

“We can’t go ask anyone beyond the Supreme Court as it goes on vacation. In order to build pressure, the legal recourse alone would not work. The state and the political party in power should join other parties and the people protesting here demanding the implementation of the final verdict. In this manner, the state can help increase the efficacy of the protests and impact the Centre for implementation of the February 16 verdict,” he said. 

On the Centre’s inaction, the leader suggested the state to make amends to its prayer instead of believing the Centre. Pandian said that the state can ask the Supreme Court itself to implement its own orders, which would provide for the scheme which had been laid out in detail in the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal. 

The court had, last week, asked the Centre to frame a draft Cauvery management scheme and file it by May 3 for the implementation of its order on water distribution. The state has moved the top court as the Centre has failed to frame the scheme for the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) within six weeks as ordered. 

Since the final verdict, the state has been insisting that the court’s order to the Centre to formulate a ‘scheme’ referred to the setting up of the CMB and the CWRC. Meanwhile, D Raja, Rajya Sabha MP and CPI National Secretary speaking to reporters in Tirupur on Sunday said, “If the BJP-led Centre continues to shun the principles of federalism for its own selfish interests, more states may witness people uprisings like in Tamil Nadu.” Stating that Tamil Nadu is in a state of turmoil, as the BJP betrayed the state over the Cauvery issue, Raja said that AIADMK government has also failed to question the Centre. 

“The ruling AIADMK has failed to protect the rights and interests of the state. The Centre isn’t interested in the welfare of Dalits and tribal people. The BJP government, under the influence of RSS, is intending to bury the ideals of Ambedkar under the pretext of embracing him,” he said. Raja further said that the state government would have been unseated long back, if the Governor had performed his duty as per the Constitution.