DMK’s working president M.K. Stalin has asserted that the weak State Govt. led by the ruling AIADMK hasn’t handled the (setting up of) Cauvery Management Board (CMB) issue properly.  “Karnataka hasn’t accepted the Supreme Court’s order in this regard where as the Centre didn’t bother to implement the Court’s orders,” Stalin said.

Stalin kick-started the DMK’s ‘walkathon’ program to reach Cuddalore from Trichy’s Mukkombu by walking the distance with his party’s functionaries and cadres.  The decision to walk the distance and submit a memorandum was taken at an all-party meeting headed by Stalin Chennai a few days back, as part of the overall efforts to pressurize the Centre to set up the CMB to ensure proper Cauvery water-sharing.

The ‘Cauvery Rights Retrieval Walkathon’ was flagged off by Dravidar Kazhagam president Ki Veeramani, who has been a long-standing ally of the DMK, along with Indian Union Muslim League’s (IUML) president Kadhar Moitheen.  Veeramani said that Tamils were only demanding their due (Cauvery river) water rights from Centre.

Taking the Centre to task, Stalin said that the Supreme Court had delivered a clear verdict in the case but the verdict hadn’t been paid due attention by the Centre and Karnataka.  While Karnataka doesn’t want the verdict to be implemented, the Centre appears reluctant to implement the verdict while the Govt. of Tamil Nadu appears to be clueless in convincing the Centre about the need to set up the CMB at once.

“The weak State Govt. is afraid of taking up the issue vigorously with the Centre.  If the Supreme Court’s verdict is not implemented, we shall ensure that the whole State is affected by our non-violent protests.  This walkathon is not conducted with a political motive but only to retrieve the State’s due rights on (use of) Cauvery water.  The State doesn’t deserve to condemn Centre and Karnataka on the issue as its attitude is too weak,” Stalin said.