The Centre was completely supportive of Tamil Nadu's demand for notifying the
final award of the Cauvery Tribunal and it will be done soon, Union Shipping
Minister G K Vasan said today.
"The Centre has completely supported it. It will be done after getting the
approval of the Ministry of Law and Justice...(Centre) will certainly do it," he
said.
Addressing a meeting at the TNCC headquarters Sathyamurthy Bhavan here to
explain the achievements of Congress-led UPA, he accused Karnataka of shedding
crocodile tears on this matter and expressed confidence of a favourable verdict
for Tamil Nadu in a case filed in the Supreme Court in connection with the
water-sharing dispute.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had said recently that the delay in notifying the
final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in the Central Gazette had
deprived the rights of Tamil Nadu on Cauvery and also in receiving the due share
of the river water.
On the issue of Kudankulam nuclear power project, which has been facing protests
from locals, Vasan said the plant will start producing power 'soon' and
described the Indo-Russian joint venture as a "great achievement" of UPA.
While power-starved Tamil Nadu will receive a "large chunk" of electricity from
there, Congress' state unit was striving to ensure that the entire power
generated there was allocated to the state, he said.
He said a dry port at Sriperumbudur, named after former Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi, would come up with an investment of Rs 1000 million.
Earlier, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, who highlighted the power
crisis in Tamil Nadu, said her ministry had granted environmental clearance to
five proposed power projects in the state including in north Chennai, all
totalling 1462 mw. This was to ensure there were no power cuts in the state, she
said.
Emerging story. Watch this space for updates as more details come in
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