'Sent by Jayalalithaa,' Say Party MPs On Cauvery Protest in Delhi

New Delhi: The almost 50 parliamentarians from Jayalalithaa's AIADMK marched to the South Block office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi today to demand the setting up of a Cauvery Water Management Board of experts to assess the water needs of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in their dispute over the Cauvery river.

They had been sent, the lawmakers said, by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, currently in hospital, to protest against the centre's stand in the Supreme Court that it cannot create the board and needs the authorisation of parliament to do so.

When asked on Monday why it had not disclosed this earlier, the centre said in court that "it was a mistake."

Senior AIADMK leader M Thambidurai, who led today's march from Parliament House, attacked both the ruling BJP and the Congress, saying "they are both the same when it comes to Tamil Nadu."

The AIADMK has found rare consensus with arch rival and Tamil Nadu's main opposition party the DMK on the issue, as both have accused the BJP-led Centre of "betraying" state, alleging that it is acting with an eye on assembly elections in Karnataka in 2018.

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At a meeting last week, a Tamil Nadu minister read out a stinging statement on the Cauvery dispute from Ms Jayalalithaa, whose party says she has been holding frequent meetings from her hospital bed in Chennai on the issue, dismissing reports that she is very unwell.  

The Supreme Court had asked the Centre last week to set up by the board up today. Its members were to travel to both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to assess their needs.

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Karnataka does not want the board to be created as it is concerned about its four reservoirs on the River Cauvery being exposed to the experts, who could disagree from its assessment and declarations of its need for water resources.