The Tamil Nadu Government on Wednesday renewed its appeal to the Kerala Government to come forward to settle the Neyyar water dispute amicably through dialogue, keeping in mind the interest of farmers in Kanyakumari district.
Reacting to the statement of Kerala Minister for Water Resources N K Premachandran that the Neyyar was an not an inter-State river, Tamil Nadu PWD Minister Durai Murugan said: “Notwithstanding the arguments and counter-arguments on the issue, Tamil Nadu is genuinely interested in settling the issue amicably by signing an agreement based on facts and principles of natural justice.” The ayacut of 9,200 acres in Kanyakumari district, which was getting the Neyyar water for more than 35 years, could not be denied the established facility, he said and expressed confidence that Kerala would consider all relevant aspects of the issue afresh and agree for a constructive way forward through dialogue.
Stating that Premachandran’s remark that the Neyyar was not an inter-state river was a distortion of facts, Durai Murugan said the Kerala Government had come out with a report in 1958 showing the Neyyar as an interstate river.
However, later, for reasons best known to Kerala Government, in the “Water Atlas of Kerala”, published in 1995, the Neyyar river basin was shown to be lying exclusively in its territory.
The part of the basin lying in the Tamil Nadu territory was effaced and suppressed in the later document.
In 1999, when former Kerala Minister V P Ramakrishna Pillai said that an inter-state agreement on sharing the Neyyar water was unnecessary as the river was not an inter-state entity, Durai Murugan said he had replied to him on September 8, 2000, underscoring the need for signing an agreement.
He had insisted that “an agreement is to be concluded between the two States for sharing of capital cost and maintenance cost and for finalising the rules and regulations in the Neyyar Irrigation System even though Neyyar is not an inter-State river.” In that letter, his emphasis was on arriving at an agreement irrespective of whether the Neyyar was an inter-state river or not. “Now, it is unfortunate that the Kerala Minister for Water Resources has chosen to quote the less relevant part of my letter out of context as if the Tamil Nadu government had conclusively admitted that Neyyar is not an inter-State river.
source
expressbuzz.com
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