Union govt taking unilateral decisions on Mekedatu, says TNCC chief

Talking to reporters at Madurai airport, he said it was wrong that the Centre had drafted a report on construction of the dam without consent of the state government, which moved the Supreme Court against such a draft. But despite this, the Union Minister had recently averred that the BJP would pursue the matter with the Centre if the Karnataka government prepared a detailed project report.

Condemning the Union Minister’s statement, he said it would set a wrong precedent as he’s bound by political practicalitiesand not against nationalsecurity.

Despite the Cauvery Water Management Authority’s order to release 9.2 tmcft Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu in June, Karnataka Water Resources Minister DK Shivakumar declared that there’s insufficient storage of water in Cauvery. The Karnataka government should not politicise the issue and release water to cater to basic needs of people and farmers of Tamil Nadu as per the directive of the Authority, the TNCC president said.

Citing that there’s no clarity in Kasturirangan Committee’s Draft National Education policy submitted recently in the wake of controversial issue on language system adopted in education in Tamil Nadu, he said students had already been finding it difficult in studying two languages in the current scenario. He said anyhow the third language of Hindi should not be forcibly imposed in the education system as it could be an act against democracy.

On the release of Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts release the TNCC chief said it was certainly wrong to compare the release of Sanjay Dutt, Hindi film hero, who was earlier jailed on some criminal charges, with seven life convicts seeking release. Murder is different from any other crime, but the Congress party did not oppose their release, which could be directed either by the Supreme Court or any other court. He said government could not interfere in such issue of releasing such convicts as it’s not its duty, but of the legal body. There’s nothing wrong, if the Supreme Court considering the Rajiv case convicts’ imprisonment of 25 years till now and provided amnesty to them.

Further, he said that the days of ruling government in Tamil Nadu were being counted since it had no stable majority.