MADURAI: "Tiruchendur is the constituency from where I passed my first political test after the late chief minister MG Ramachandran made me the
party's propaganda secretary way back in 1983 when I campaigned here. I am sure you will give me another victory," said AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa, kicking off her party's campaign from this coastal town in south Tamil Nadu, where the bulk of the electorate constitutes the fishing community.

Jayalalithaa, who arrived in the small fishing village of Punnaikayal in Tiruchendur constituency to begin her first lap of her two-day election campaign for her party candidate Amman T Narayanan for the December 19 byelection, was given a tumultuous welcome by cadres and locals.

Addressing the crowd, Jayalalithaa said it was she who had introduced an unknown face to this region (referring to Anitha Radhakrishnan, who quit the party to join the DMK and has been fielded as the candidate here) and made him win twice and also made him a minister. "Now with the betrayal of this traitor, an unwanted byelection has been thrust on you. Take the bribes they offer and defeat them," she said.

AIADMK members had made elaborate arrangements for her visit. Bouquets of roses were brought from Madurai and four dance troupes entertained the voters at each spot that Jayalalithaa addressed. She attacked the ruling DMK and accused it of having done little for the fishing community.

D Anton, a native of this village, now living in Tuticorin had come all the way to Punnaikayal just to hear Amma.

T Susai, a fisherman, said Jayalalithaa's visit would lift up the sagging AIADMK image here. "We may not win this byelection, but Amma's visit will definitely ensure the party's victory here in the next general elections," he said.

NEW DELHI: Much to the chagrin of associates of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, the Supreme Court on Monday green signalled
submission of report by Justice Sivasubramaniam Commission probing the alleged grabbing of 53 acres of land allotted to Adi Dravidars and landless poor.

Despite opposition from counsel for T Chitra and J Illavarassi, a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan permitted the commission to submit the report and even chided the counsel saying, "What reason do you have to restrain the commission from submitting its report."

The counsel said there was nothing in the pleadings before the court relating to submission of report by the commission and hence, it would be unnecessary for the apex court to pass an express order in this regard.

However, senior advocate T R Andhyarujina said that though the commission had completed the report, it was not submitting it to the Tamil Nadu government because of the pendency of appeals filed by Chitra and Illavarassi.

"The commission should not be inhibited to submit the report just because their appeals are pending adjudication in the apex court," he said.

Chitra and Illavarassi are questioning the commission's jurisdiction to go into alleged encroachments on Poromboke lands at Siruthavur village in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu by Bharani Beach Resorts.

The K Karunanidhi government had consistently maintained that the notification appointing the commission had a reference to Poromboke lands and hence it had the jurisdiction to probe it. Chitra and Illavarassi had opposed it.

The government had told the commission that as per documents on records, 53 acres assigned to landless poor had been encroached upon. Besides this, 31.23 acres of Poromboke lands had been encroached upon and fenced.

AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa Monday announced P. Munusamy and Amman T. Narayanan as the party’s candidates for Tamil Nadu’s Vandavasi and Tiruchendur constituencies for which by-polls will be held Dec 19.
After boycotting the August by-polls held for five assembly seats in Tamil Nadu, AIADMK is now gearing up for a fierce fight against DMK and has in fact postponed some part of its organisational elections due to the by-polls.

The by-elections were necessitated following the death of sitting DMK legislator Jayaraman representing Vandavasi early this month and the resignation of Tiruchendur legislator Anitha Radhakrishnan, who switched sides to DMK from AIADMK.

Congress and MDMK have announced their decision to work for the success of DMK and AIADMK candidates respectively in the two constituencies.

The state’s ruling DMK is in the process of selecting its candidates.

CHENNAI: AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Thursday said that Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was now trying to blame LTTE chief V Prabhakaran for the current plight of Lankan Tamils in the island nation to escape the wrath of the Tamil race.

In a statement, she said the Tamil race would not forgive Karunanidhi for the deceit of Lankan Tamils by indirectly supporting the Sri Lankan Government through his alliance with the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre, which had supplied arms and ammunition for waging a war against the innocent island Tamils.

She also accused the ruling DMK government of becoming a facilitator for killing the island Tamils instead of giving protection to them. “To project his image among the Tamil diaspora in a positive way, Karunanidhi also branded Prabhakaran as his friend and not a terrorist, but on another occasion, he said “we were unable to do anything on the Lankan issue’’.

She said in 2008, the DMK government had extended full support to the UPA Government, which provided arms and ammunition, and did not raise its voice against the killings of Tamils in the island nation.

“If Karunanidhi really cared for the Lankan Tamils, he should have withdrawn the support to the UPA government at the beginning of 2008’’, she said, and added, “If he had done that the war would have been stopped.’’

AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa: File photo

CHENNAI: Continuing the war of words on the Mullaperiyar dam row, AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa has charged the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government with "giving credence" to a Kerala law by not raising the water level of the dam.

She alleged the Tamil Nadu government did not lower the dam shutters to raise the storage level to 142 ft, despite being armed with a Supreme Court order.

In a statement issued here Sunday, Jayalalithaa citing the apex court's order in 2006 said: "Not one but three monsoons have brought in water into the Mullaperiyar reservoir.

"Still Karunanidhi (Tamil Nadu chief minister) did not instruct his officials to lower the gates of the dam to raise the water level to 142 feet! Who is at fault? Karunanidhi? The Kerala government? Or the Supreme Court?"

Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been at loggerheads over the Mullaperiyar dam built under an agreement signed in 1886 between the then maharaja of Travancore and the British administration.

The dam, located in Kerala's Idukki district, serves Tamil Nadu. In recent years, Tamil Nadu has demanded that the storage capacity of the dam be raised from 136 feet (41.5 m) to 142 feet (43 m) to meet the increasing demand of water for irrigation. However, Kerala is seeking the construction of a new dam, saying that the existing structure had outlived its life.

"On Feb 27, 2006, when I was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court, while passing orders in the Mullaperiyar issue, accepted the Tamil Nadu government's line of reasoning and ordered that the water level in the dam could be raised from the present 136 feet to 142 feet," Jayalalithaa said.

"By the time the rains came and water flowed into the Mullaperiyar reservoir, the minority regime headed by Karunanidhi was in power in Tamil Nadu. It was up to this government to lower the gates of the dam and increase the level of water to 142 feet and give effect to the apex court's order."

She charged that "for reasons best known to Karunanidhi himself", he did not give the orders for this.

She wondered since when was the Tamil Nadu chief minister bound to follow laws enacted by the Kerala government. She posed: "When Karunanidhi had the Supreme Court's order to back him, why did he give credence to a local law of the Kerala government."

While the Supreme Court gave its order in favour of Tamil Nadu to raise the storage levels to 142 ft in February 2006, the Kerala government passed a law effectively nullifying the judgment in March that year.

Opposing the Kerala law, Tamil Nadu had filed a case in the Supreme Court in 2006, which the court after hearing for nearly three years referred to a five-member constitution bench Nov 10.

The main opposition AIADMK in Tamil Nadu today announced it would boycott the World Tamil Classical Conference organised by the state government, as it was not in the series of International Association for Tamil Research's 'World Tamil Conference'.

"In view of the fact that the World Tamil Classical Conference organised by Karunanidhi is not in the series of IATR's World Tamil Conference, there is no need for AIADMK to take part in it. Hence the party will boycott the conference," AIADMK General Secretary Jayalalithaa said in a statement here.

Jayalalithaa's remark came two days after Chief Minister M Karunanidhi wrote to all parties in the Assembly, seeking cooperation for the success of the four-day conference, scheduled to be held in Coimbatore in June next year, besides requesting them to be part of the organising committees

NEW DELHI: AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa on Sunday brought up India’s objection to China building a dam on their side of the Brahmaputra river to

justify Tamil Nadu’s opposition to the construction of a new dam on the Kerala side of the Mullaiperiyar river.

Ms Jayalalithaa accused the Centre of having “different yardsticks” and said that if one country could object to the actions of a neighbouring country on a crucial issue such as sharing of river waters, then why not one state.

The AIADMK chief has attempted to put the ruling DMK government on the mat over the central government’s nod to Kerala on October 5 to undertake a survey to construct a new dam on the inter-state river. The DMK, which is a key constituent of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, and the Tamil Nadu Congress have been on the defensive on the issue.

DMK chief and TN chief minister M Kraunanidhi has sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh intervention to withdraw the permission for the survey from the Union ministry of environment and forests and also moved the Supreme Court for a stay. Both the DMK and the TN Congress have criticised Mr Jairam Ramesh, the Union minister for Environment and Forests, for giving Kerala the clearance for the survey.

“India is objecting to China building a dam on Brahmaputra river in that country on grounds that it would affect the ecology of several Indian states,” Ms Jayalalithaa said in a statement in Chennai on Sunday. She said the Centre had “different yardsticks” , asking, “Are not both Kerala and Tamil Nadu states of Indian union? Do the Prime Minister and the Union minister for environment and forests have different yardsticks while dealing with identical issues concerning the Indian nation and Tamil Nadu state?” the AIADMK chief asked.

The AIADMK, which is trying to get its act together as the principal Opposition party after receiving a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls, has charged the DMK with “inaction” and blamed Mr Karunanidhi for not being able to protect the interests of the state.

Following a media report that China had begun constructing a dam on the Brahmaputra river as part of the Nagmu hydroelectric project, India had said such a project may have significant impact on the socio-economic condition of people living downstream.

Ms Jayalalithaa’s said in the case of the neighbours TN and Kerela, the latter was going ahead with the survey for building a new dam which would be “against the interests of the people of Tamil Nadu" . She held that it would affect drinking water supply as well as irrigation in five districts in the state.

The party has said that Mr Karunanidhi should have withdrawn the DMK's support to the Congress-led UPA government when the Centre failed to act on his plea to withdraw permission to Kerala for the survey.

Mr Karunanidhi , for his part, has rejected Ms Jayalalithaa’s charge of “inaction” , citing his letter of protest to the PM, a communication to Mr Ramesh before the permission was given to Kerala and the decision to move the SC which will be heard on October 20.

The two states have been at loggerheads over the dam issue with Tamil Nadu opposing the new reservoir in place of the 113-year-old existing one and also protesting the Centre’s permission for conducting the survey.

Chennai, Putting the DMK-led state government on the mat, opposition leader J. Jayalalithaa has said the nod to Kerala to carry out a survey for construction of a dam across the Mullaperiyar river was given at a national level meeting where Tamil Nadu was not represented.
In a statement issued here Wednesday, AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa said senior officials from most Indian states were represented at the meeting which discussed several inter-state issues.

She was referring to a Sep 16 meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife chaired by the Union Minister of State for Forests and Environment, Jairam Ramesh.

“Kerala was represented by K.P. Ouseph, chief wildlife warden (CWLW). Surprisingly, Tamil Nadu went totally unrepresented in this meeting in which 31 people from all over India participated,” she said citing the minutes of the meeting.

Jayalalithaa said the meeting discussed permission for survey and investigation in the area falling within the Periyar Tiger Reserve for construction of the New Mullaperiyar dam.

Quoting from the minutes of the meeting, she said: “The member secretary apprised the members that the proposal was only for survey and investigation involving an area of 2.5 ha against the area of 925 sq km of Periyar Tiger Reserve.”

“CWLW of Kerala has recommended the proposal subject to the number of conditions. After detailed discussions, and considering the fact that the old dam was 113 years old, weak and could cause disaster in future, the committee unanimously recommended the proposal only for survey and investigation subject to compliance of conditions envisaged by CWLW and without in any way affecting any legal and administrative clearance required,” Jayalalithaa quoted the minutes.

Wondering whether Tamil Nadu was not invited to this crucial meeting, Jayalalithaa said: “If so, what sort of a coalition government is this, which depends on so many ministers from the DMK and the Congress from Tamil Nadu, but does not invite anyone from the state for such an important meeting?”

She posed: “If Tamil Nadu had been invited, then why was no representative sent to ensure that the state’s interests and its riparian rights were protected? Was that not the reason why the decision to accord permission to Kerala to conduct the survey was recorded in the minutes as ‘unanimous’?”

Citing Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s own admission that Environment Minister Ramesh had given his written clearance only on Oct 6, 2009, Jayalalithaa said: “For 20 days after the decision to give Kerala the permission to conduct the survey was taken, neither the Tamil Nadu government nor the DMK ministers in the union cabinet did anything about it. Does this not amount to administrative ineptitude of the highest order?”

On Oct 2, the Tamil Nadu government had issued a statement that it would take action if somebody gave proof that the centre had given the nod to carry out a survey for construction of a new dam across Mullaperiyar River.

general secretary Jayalalithaa on Saturday strongly criticised the composition of the MPs’ delegation that left for Sri Lanka, saying it was not an all-party delegation but a “ruling coalition delegation from Tamil Nadu.” No member of an opposition party or a journalist was in the team. There were no independent observers either, she said in a statement.

Ms. Jayalalithaa asked to whom the delegation would submit a report on its return. “Who has chosen the members of this delegation and authorised their travel?” Would the members get to see the real camps, she wanted to know.

Tragedy trivialised
The AIADMK leader said the tragedy of Tamils in Sri Lanka was being trivialised into a comedy, she said.

Chennai, Oct 6 (IANS) Tamil Nadu opposition leader J. Jayalalitha Tuesday denounced the ruling DMK’s demand that Sri Lankan refugees in India should be given Indian citizenship.
The former chief minister said that the demand by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi had “trivialized the protracted struggle of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka”.

“After having been a party to snuffing out the Tamil fight for self-determination, Karunanidhi is now trying to shed crocodile tears for the displaced Tamils,” she said in a statement.

Jayalalitha wondered what the central government would do regarding similar claims for Indian citizenship by refugees from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Tibet if the Sri Lankan Tamils were given the concession.

“Karunanidhi has been around in politics long enough to know all this. He knows that the centre will not be able to accede to his demand. Yet he has got his son to raise this issue and he has himself described the demand as extremely significant,” she said.

According to Jayalalitha, any displaced community living as refugees in another country would prefer to be rehabilitated in their own land.

“The three decades of war in Sri Lanka was for the Tamils’ right to self-determination in their own homeland,” she pointed out.

Thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils live in Tamil Nadu, on their own and in government camps. All of them fled their country to escape the war between the Tamil Tigers and the military that ended in May.

The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) today decided to exit from the AIADMK-led Opposition alliance in Tamil Nadu. The party, led by its founder S Ramadoss, also father of former Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, had jumped from the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance to the AIADMK once before this May’s Lok Sabha election.

In a statement today, the PMK said the latest factor that led it to walk out was after C V Shanmugam, a former education minister from the AIADMK, said he was pursuing a case against the PMK founder and his son, Anbumani, with 20 others, despite the police having decided not to prosecute them for want of evidence.

He had petitioned the high court here in this regard on an attack on his home in 2006 at the town of Tindivanam. On which, the HC ordered a halt to the proceedings in this regard at a Tindivanam court.

A strong backward caste-based party, the PMK had switched alliance partners in each of the past six elections. Each time, except for this one, it had emerged as part of the winning combination.

This time, it had contested for seven Lok Sabha seats; it got none. After a decade when it was a partner alternately of both the BJP and the Congress at the Centre, enjoying minsiterial berths, it has left with none.

The PMK had aligned with the NDA, of which the AIADMK was then a partner, in 1998, and continued with it for the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, when the AIADMK went to the Congress camp, while the DMK struck an alliance with the BJP. But during the 2001 state assembly polls, PMK snapped ties with the DMK to align with the AIADMK.

But two months after the polls, PMK was back in the DMK-BJP fold, as AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa refused to give a Rajya Sabha seat to the party.

Again in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, it dumped the NDA along with the DMK, to join the UPA and continued to be in the alliance for the 2006 assembly polls. But its alliance with the ruling DMK collapsed in the run-up to the 2009 elections.