Centre Committing 'Blunder' by Not Forming Cauvery Management Board: Kamal Haasan

Tiruchirappalli: The Centre is committing a "blunder" by not forming the Cauvery Management Board, Tamil actor and Makkal Neethi Maiyam president Kamal Haasan said on Wednesday.

Haasan said the Centre and various political parties were diverting the attention of the people from the main issue of forming the CMB. He was addressing a meeting, organised by his party here to condemn the Centre on the issue.

"The Centre should not expect cooperation and there would be peaceful non-cooperation from the people of the country if the CMB was not formed," Haasan said.

"What the central government is doing on the CMB issue is a blunder. The Centre and state government are pretending to be sleeping. One can awaken them if they were really sleeping... I cannot speak more than this against the Centre...," he said.

Haasan said Tamil Nadu has been denied its rights on the Cauvery water issue for the past several centuries and demanded setting up of the CMB.

"My wish is that we should retrieve the political honour we have lost on the Cauvery issue," he said. He said many solutions have been suggested by legal and water resource experts for proper sharing of Cauvery water.

However, no solution has been used for proper sharing of the water, Haasan claimed.

He accused the state government of "hiding behind the back" of the union government on the Cauvery issue. Haasan described as 'farcical' the day-long fast observed by the AIADMK yesterday urging the Centre to immediately constitute the CMB and alleged that it was working as the central government's "errand boy."

Tamil Nadu has now been made to beg for water by the central and state governments, Haasan said. "We know how to face this conspiracy... we will face it," he said.

His party would give its solutions for the Cauvery issue to persons concerned at the appropriate time, he said.

He said the MNM was not against industries. It was all for industries which provided jobs and did business in a fair manner without affecting the environment, he said.

"We don't want industries that had been rejected throughout the world and other states due to eco-environmental concerns," Haasan said. MNM would not allow any reduction in the 69 per cent reservation quota in jobs and educational institutes for BCS/MBCs etc, he added.