Farmers and the opposition allege that the state government has not done enough to ensure that Tamil Nadu gets at least 205 TMC of Cauvery water.
New Delhi: Farmers in Tamil Nadu say the Supreme Court’s verdict Friday on the Cauvery water dispute has come as a big blow to them, and say they fear that this will have an immediate effect on the cultivation of short-term crops, known as kuruvai.
According to the SC order, Tamil Nadu is now entitled to 177.2 TMC of water against the 192 TMC that was awarded by the Cauvery Tribunal in 2007.
Kuruvai crops are highly profitable and are grown in June-July in the Cauvery Delta of Tamil Nadu, which has a total area of 14.47 lakh hectares. The region comprises seven districts that include 28 revenue taluks under the zone.
The farmers in these areas are highly dependent on the Cauvery water for their irrigation due to erratic rainfalls in the state over the past few years.
Swamimalai Sundara Vimalnathan, secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers Protection Association, said the judgment is very disappointing.
“There is no guarantee if we can continue with our farming or not. With this amount of water, we can never cultivate our kuruvai crops,” Vimalnathan told ThePrint.
“The Tribunal had awarded 205 TMC in 1991 which got reduced to 192 TMC in 2007. With today’s order, our share has gone down further. We were expecting a verdict similar to the one given in 1991,” Vimalnathan added.
With groundwater depleting, the farmers also fear that the entire Cauvery Delta will one day turn into a “desert”. “Our groundwater is depleting; we have to depend on river irrigation. If this continues, our region will turn into a desert in a few years,” Vimalnathan said.
Political uproar
The opposition has blamed the ruling AIADMK led by the OPS-EPS faction.
Saravanan Annadurai, DMK spokesperson, said that when his party was in power, the state received 192 TMC of water.
“The Tamil Nadu government should be blamed for this. The verdict shows that the state government did not present a valid argument in front of the Supreme Court since they have not taken this issue seriously,” he said.
“1 TMC of water will irrigate 6,000 acres. If there is a deficit of 14.75 TMC, this will affect 1 lakh acres of land,” Annadurai added.
The DMK has also demanded dismissal of the present AIADMK government. “They don’t have a mandate; they don’t have majority, they are not able to perform. I think it is high time they step down on moral ground,” said Annadurai.
C.R. Saraswathi, AIADMK spokesperson from the T.T.V. Dinakaran faction, also said that the state government has not made enough efforts.
“In the past one year, how many times did EPS and OPS go to Delhi regarding this issue? They are only concentrating on forming government and securing their positions; they do not care for people,” Saraswathi said.
Joining the chorus against the state government, Vimalnathan said, “The efforts of former CM J. Jayalalithaa were appreciable but now the government has not taken any tough stand on the Cauvery issue.”
“We doubt that they might have some hidden agenda and might be influenced by the central government,” he claimed.
Step-motherly treatment
There is an impression among people in Tamil Nadu that Karnataka is winning despite the fact that they have disobeyed the Supreme Court directions multiple times.
“In September 2016, when the Supreme Court directed Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka openly defied it,” said Annadurai.
“Karnataka has continuously violated the SC directions, but it still got away, it has got a fair share. The Central government is giving a step-motherly treatment to Tamil Nadu,” he alleged.
The Tamil government spokesperson refused to comment on this matter.