The Cauvery supervisory committee has asked Karnataka to release 3,000 cusecs water daily to Tamil Nadu from September 21 to September 30. Responsible citizens, governments and social activists must find a solution for addressing this issue. The Cauvery water sharing issue has become a political issue between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Politicians from both these states have often raised this matter for consolidating their vote banks. Cauvery is an inter-state dispute, but this is no reason to turn the issue into a raging controversy that draws the people of the two States into confrontation. The 124-year-old Cauvery water dispute is among the rare water disputes that have never been satisfactorily resolved.
The Cauvery basin covers a large expanse of land including major chunks in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and also smaller areas in Kerala and Puducherry. Initially, the dispute was between Karnataka and TN but later Kerala and Puducherry also entered the fray. The Central government too must intervene in this matter and can’t remain a mute spectator.
Poor clearing of drains, water logging results in vector borne diseases and we claim that we are a developed nation. All high ranking politicians and Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) officers are living in Delhi and yet no action is visible on ground. They only deliver speeches from Red Fort and click photos with long handle brooms. Don’t you think it is awful, highly undesirable and highly intolerable?
On the other hand, normal life continues to remain disrupted in Kashmir due to imposition of curfew and separatist sponsored strike. Don’t you think that some better steps could have been taken by the government to address this issue? As many as 81 people, including two cops, have been killed in the unrest that broke out a day after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces in South Kashmir on July 8. Wani was a young Hizbul Mujahideen commander from south Kashmir’s Tral area. He was active on social media, using it to reach out to the youth and creating huge following.
I know that the matter is complicated but competence is required for resolving Kashmir issue. The government must offer employment and business opportunities to Kashmir residents and militancy problem can be addressed effectively. If people remain unemployed then they might indulge in stone-pelting incidents as they are supported from militants across the border. The government should have political will to resolve Kashmir issue through dialogue process.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)