Jaya at it again; alleges deal on Cauvery

It may be recalled that Jayalalitha, supported by her allies, had faulted the new Cauvery accord and had been demanding the notification of the original Cauvery agreement. Reiterating that thenewly-constituted Cauvery River Water Authority (CRWA), headed by the Prime Minister, would be of `little benefit’ to the farmers of the Cauvery Delta in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalitha demanded that the Centre implement the Cauvery Water Tribunal award and `not change it suit its purpose’.

She pointed out that the first meeting of the Authority, held on October 29 last and chaired by the PM, had ended `without any agreement’ as to how much water should flow into the Mettur reservoir. No agreement could be reached on the basic point regarding which of the readings of water inflow — the figure recorded in the gauging stations at Mettur or that of Billigundlu — should be taken into account, she said.

“This happened because none of the Chief Ministers or the Prime minister were aware of the technicalities of how much water should flow into the reservoirs or how it should be measured,” she pointed out. While the experts committee of the Karunanidhi Government charged Karnataka of having withheld 8 tmcft of water,the experts committee of the Patel Government claimed they had released by mistake 16 tmcft of water in excess of what was due to Tamil Nadu.

“Is it possible for such issues to be resolved by a politically pre-occupied Prime Minister? What has the CRWA done from August this year? How can the Authority headed by the Prime Minister implement an accord when he does not know how much water Tamil Nadu should receive?” Jayalalitha demanded to know. There was no technical expertise in the CRWA, she alleged.

The new accord, she said, had been brought into force in the interim between the summer `Kuruvai’ crop and the next `Thallady’ crop. The main need for water for the Cauvery Delta farmers is in the months of June-July and November-December. That is why the water crisis of 1993 and 1995 arose in July and December respectively, she added.

The CRWA, headed by the Prime Minister only speaks of how much water Tamil Nadu should receive annually, whereas the interim award of the Tribunal clearly states thequantum that should be released week by week to Tamil Nadu. “This purely a `techno-administrative’ matter which has been politicised. Even the Supreme Court has certified that the Tribunal’s award is Constitutionally correct and legally proper,” Jayalalitha said, adding it was the duty of the Centre to implement the Tribunal’s award.

Jaya graft cases hearing on Nov 23

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today fixed November 23 as the date for hearing of a special leave petition (SLP) filed by former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha against the judgement of the Madras High Court upholding the setting up of special courts to try corruption cases against her, some of her erstwhile Cabinet colleagues and IAS officers.

The hearing was fixed by a three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice A S Anand, justices V N Khare and M Srinivasan when K V Vishvanathan, counsel for Jayalalitha urged the court for an early date of hearing.

The court, following the submission from Vishvanathan and an undertakinggiven by Tamil Nadu public prosecutor Shanmuga Sundaram, directed that the proceedings before the trial courts concerned could continue till the framing of charges. But the prosecution would not lead evidence beyond the stage of framing of the charges.