india

Updated: Jun 20, 2019 22:58 IST

Despite facing an unprecedented water scarcity in state capital Chennai and across the state, the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday turned down neighbouring Kerala’s offer to provide almost 20 lakh litres of water through trains.

Kerala has extended a helping hand on its own volition and duly informed the same to the office of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS). However, the response has turned out to be negative.

The AIADMK government refusing to accept Kerala’s generosity comes at a time when it is facing the opposition’s heat over its failure in handling the water crisis. The DMK and Congress have also demanded the sacking of Local Administration Minister SP Velumani for the government’s abject failure to manage the situation.

In the evening, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s office had put out a statement saying that the office of his Tamil Nadu counterpart had declined the offer maintaining that it was not required as of now. The offer was 20 lakh litres of water to Chennai, which has a substantial Malayalee population, by rail from Thiruvananthapuram.

However, neither chief minister EPS nor his office issued a statement on the issue and officials too remained tightlipped on this.

Reacting to the development, DMK president MK Stalin accused the AIADMK government of displaying false prestige and declining the offer. A DMK release said, Stalin spoke to Vijayan over the phone and thanked him for the timely offer.

“Stalin has also requested the Kerala CM to extend wholehearted support to sort out Tamil Nadu’s water deficiency. During the conversation, Pinarayi expressed hope that the Tamil Nadu government would accept his offer soon,” read the statement released late in the night.

However, the AIADMK maintained that the offer from Kerala has not been rejected outright and that it might be under consideration.

“I am not aware of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s offer of 20 lakh litres of water. No one will reject such a huge offer while the state is facing acute water shortage. We can’t reject such offers. The government would have to consider transportation charges and other logistics before accepting it. As such, it need not necessarily be construed as rejection,” Tamil Nadu Handloom Minister OS Manian, a party veteran, explained.

With Tamil Nadu’s rejection of Kerala’s assistance bound to fuel a political controversy, the AIADMK’s saffron ally, BJP, has come to its aid. Concurring with Manian’s view, BJP state general secretary Karu Nagarajan said the Tamil Nadu government might be wary of the transportation charges for bringing 20 lakh litres of water through wagons.

“There is nothing wrong with receiving water from Kerala. But, 20 lakh litres is too little to quench the thirst of Chennai which requires 800 MLD of water per day. The cost of bringing it through train is also high and for the same amount more water could be sourced from nearby sources or from Andhra Pradesh,” he argued.

Taking a dig at the Kerala CM, the BJP leader said if Pinarayi Vijayan was so concerned about TN’s water problem, his government should help resolve the Mullai Periyar Dam issue so that Tamil Nadu receives its legitimate share of water.

“Resolving the Mullai Periyar Dam issue would help the southern districts to overcome the perennial water problem. Also, Kerala is putting hurdles in renovating Senbagavalli dam, on the interstate border, which provides sufficient water to parts of Tirunelveli and Virudhuanagar districts,” he pointed out.

While the Chola-era Veeranam reservoir too has little water, the Mettur dam is also left with poor storage. But for the dams in Kaniyakumari and Tirunelveli districts, which are contiguous to Kerala and are beneficiaries of the South West monsoon, others across the state are nearly dry.