By IANS,
Chennai : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Tuesday said the UPA government is suffering from policy paralysis due to internal bickerings and unable to take any decision on livelihood issues of people like the Cauvery river water dispute.
In a statement issued here, Jayalalithaa referred to her May letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on convening of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and said: “Beset with problems created by the coalition parties, the central government perhaps does not find time to focus on people’s issues.”
“Suffering from policy paralysis the central government did not even look at the livelihood issues of Cauvery water dispute,” she said.
She also charged the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government with not notifying the final award of the Cauvery tribunal in the government gazette despite several requests.
Jayalalithaa said Karnataka should release 134 thousand million cubic (tmc) feet of water between June-September as per the Cauvery tribunal order in 2007. The final order prohibited Karnataka from using the water in its dams for summer irrigation.
She said Tamil Nadu moved the apex court in March this year as Karnataka used the waters for summer irrigation and did not release water to Tamil Nadu.
A petition was filed in April to direct the central government to notify the tribunal’s award in the gazette.
Jayalalithaa said the state moved the apex court Saturday to direct Karnataka to release water and also convene a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority immediately.
With Karnataka not releasing water, Jayalalithaa said her government had taken steps to protect farmers from suffering losses in cultivating kuruvai (short term) paddy.
She said that the government released Rs.125 crore to the state power utility to purchase power and supply to 80,000 agricultural pump sets for 12 hours a day.