Tamil Nadu Leaders Express Shock, Call SC Cauvery Verdict an Injustice

New Delhi: Within hours of SC delivering Cauvery verdict, political blame game in Tamil Nadu has begun with opposition DMK accusing the state government of spoiling everything "for political gains".

Senior DMK leader Durai Murugan described the verdict as “a big shocker.” Another senior leader, the party secretary, of DMK, TKS Elangovan blamed AIADMK for the verdict.

“AIADMK is the culprit. They spoilt everything for their political gains. DMK took it in the right way but AIDMK did not work towards the case.”

He added that the verdict has come to them as a shocker “because we always demanded 192 tmc of water.​

Reacting to the Cauvery judgment by Supreme Court, senior Tamil Nadu leaders including those from the ruling AIADMK and the opposition DMK described the verdict as ‘shocking’ and ‘injustice to Tamil Nadu’.

Senior AIADMK leader V Maitreyan told News18 that Tamil Nadu at large is looking at the verdict as an injustice. “All citizens of the state are seeing this verdict as injustice done to Tamil Nadu. We will see the full verdict and then react.”

He also urged the centre to constitute a Cauvery management board to regulate the flow of water as stipulated by the Supreme Court in its order delivered on Friday morning.

“Central government should immediately form Cauvery management board,” the senior leader from the ruling party said.

In its verdict on the Cauvery water dispute, the Supreme Court on Friday allotted an additional 14.75 Thousand Million Cubic (TMC) feet of water and reduced the share of water to Tamil Nadu by the same amount. Tamil Nadu, the SC ordered, will now only get 177.25 TMC feet of water instead of 192 TMC feet.

Elantamil Arvalan, the spokesperson of TTV Dhinakaran, former leader of AIADMK who fought the recent RK Nagar bypolls independently and won it, told News18 that considering the agrarian distress in the state, the verdict was puzzling.

“There are more than 24 lakh acres under cultivation, so I don’t know how the Supreme Court has taken decision. I am in total state of shock.”

Another senior DMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP implied that SC perhaps did not take the water level of Tamil Nadu into account which keeps dipping frequently. “We are disappointed. Was ground level water taken into account as it keeps changing?," he said.

MDMK general secretary Vaiko, said, "It is not acceptable to reduce the water level due to ground water."