Chennai, Mar 9 (IANS): DMK leader M.K. Stalin on Thursday said the official team from Tamil Nadu that will be participating in the talks on the Cauvery river water issue should stick to the decision taken at the all-party meeting held here.
In a Facebook post, Stalin said the official team participating in the talks on the Cauvery river water issue should stress on setting up of the Cauvery Management Board within six weeks of the Supreme Court order delivered last month.
He said the official team should not agree with any other interim arrangement without the consent of the all political parties and the farmer associations.
On February 22, at a meeting of leaders of all political parties and representatives of farmer associations here, it was decided that Chief Minister K. Palaniswami would lead a delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urge him to set up Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee.
However, Modi had suggested the Tamil Nadu delegation to meet the Union Minister for Water Resources first, which all the political parties in Tamil Nadu -- barring the ruling AIADMK -- said was an insult to the people of the state.
Later the central government decided to call a meeting of Chief Secretaries of four states -- Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry -- to discuss the Caurvery water issue on Friday.
The apex court on February 16 had ordered the central government to set up the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee within six weeks.
The Supreme Court had reduced Tamil Nadu's share in the Cauvery water to 177.25 thousand million cubic feet (TMC), down from 192 TMC allocated by a tribunal in 2007.