TN to approach Centre if Karnataka denies Cauvery water

"You all know about the (legal) problems after the tribunal was set up and it gave its verdict. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Governments are holding talks and on humanitarian basis the Delta districts are getting possible amount of water in Cauvery river for cultivation," he told reporters here.

When asked if the problem, which was now pending before the Supreme Court, would be resolved during next year, he said "We can only try to expedite the case."

Karnataka has moved the apex court challenging the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal given in February 2007. As per the interim award, Tamil Nadu has to get 205 tmc ft of water annually.

Karunanidhi said the Tamil Nadu river grid programme was progressing "very well" and the work on linking Tamirabarani with Karumeni was in full swing.

On resettlement of internally displaced Sri Lankan Tamils, he said Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao had met him before visting the island recently and told him that she would take up the issue of the security and protection of the Tamils and welfare measures for them with the Sri Lankan Government. But she did not meet him after her return.

Referring to the trade union’s agitation over price rise, he said “Tamil Nadu government had taken possible steps to reduce the burden on the people due to the hike in the prices of essential commodities."

He ruled out the possibility of reducing the sales tax on petrol and diesel saying the state had already lowered it twice earlier.

Rejecting AIADMK’s charge that its leader Jayalalithaa was not being provided sufficient security, he said “We are giving the same amount of security which she enjoyed when she was Chief Minister. Because newspapers do not carry our statement regarding this we have given advertisements today.”

To another question, he said the present DMK-Congress alliance in the state was ”strong, healthy and friendly”. "We will take a decision about admitting new allies after consulting the Congress," he said adding DMK would form the Government in 2011.

On Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement that Supreme Court should not get into "the realm of policy formulation", Karunanidhi said it was not against the apex court.

Every institution had its own boundaries and limitations and they should function within that limit..."That is what the Prime Minister would have meant when he made the statement," he added.

When asked whether the DMK would get any addtional representation in the proposed union cabinet expansion, he said the Prime Minister did not consult him and he (Karunanidhi) would not take any initiative.

Referring to the Sethu Samudhram Shipping Channel project, he said it had not been given up and the case regarding the project was pending in the Supreme Court.