TN parties take water war to Neyveli, again

Once again, the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) has become the focus for political parties that are out to express their anger against Karnataka government for its refusal to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, with three outfits lining up picketing programmes.

The last time NLC witnessed a major agitation on the Cauvery issue was in 2002, when about 5,000 persons from the Tamil film industry drove down to Neyveli from Chennai in 140 buses for a meeting to protest Karnataka’s truancy, though the Central government establishment has been targeted several times earlier by many groups or political parties as Karnataka gets a share of the power generated there.

Now that the dispute has reared its ugly head again, the political parties are again raising the demand to stop supply of NLC power to Karnataka. Perhaps, given the prevailing power situation in TN, this time around the parties may get more public support to their demand.

Starting the series of protests will be MDMK, which has announced that the party would picket NLC on October 12. Party general secretary, Vaiko, who would lead the protest, strongly condemned Union Minister S M Krishna for putting pressure on the PM asking him to stop Cauvery water to TN. Vaiko called upon farmers and members of Tamil outfits to join the protest.

President of Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), K Veeramani announced a protest on October 15 demanding the stopping of electricity supply to Karnataka.

“How could Krishna oppose the order of the Prime Minister, who is also the chairman of the Cauvery River Authority? Krishna’s letter could be considered as against the Constitution itself. Why Krishna should not be dismissed from the minister post?” asked Veeramani.

“We could exert pressure on Karnataka by stopping NLC electricity. Cauvery water is a natural resource, but the NLC electricity is being produced by our hard work. So our demand to stop supplying electricity is more justifiable,” said Veeramani.

Meanwhile, in a press conference held here on Thursday, founder of Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi (TVK) Panruti T Velmurugan said TVK is going to picket NLC on October 20. “We should not allow supply of even single unit of electricity to Karnataka from NLC as they are not ready to give us single drop of water in Cauvery.”