Pattali Makkal Katchi’s (PMK) youth wing president and Dharmapuri M.P. Anbumani has volunteered to take the lead in quitting as Lok Sabha M.P. if his resignation would successfully force the Centre to set up the Cauvery Management Board.

Supreme Court directed the Centre a few weeks back to set up a Cauvery Management Board within six weeks.  Centre appeared to be working towards this but during last Friday’s meeting with representatives of four States including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Puducherry, Union Water Resources Secretary U.P. Sing had said that the apex Court only directed to form a Committee and not a Cauvery Management Board.

Centre’s ‘volte-face’ in this regard shocked the people of Tamil Nadu and its political parties as they felt that the constitution of the Board would render permanent justice to meet Tamil Nadu’s water-related needs.  Calls have been made to the State’s MLAs and MPs to resign ‘en masse’ from their respective posts to put unprecedented pressure on the Centre to set up the Cauvery Board.

Speaking to newsmen in Coimbatore, Anbumani said he was ready to set a precedent by resigning as the first Lok Sabha M.P. from the State to put pressure on the Centre in this regard. “Let’s all quit our posts irrespective of our party affiliation and create an emergency-like situation for the Centre; the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha MPs from the State as well as MLAs should resign en masse,” Ambumani said.

“The BJP-led Centre is conspiring against Tamil Nadu’s interest with an eye clearly on the upcoming polls in Karnataka,” Anbumani, son of party’s founder-president Ramadoss, accused. “PMK would launch a huge State-wide protest if the Cauvery Management Board is not set up by the 29th of this month,” he announced.