Jayalalithaa holds meeting with officials in hospital room, deputes team to end Cauvery impasse

CHENNAI: A few hours after the Supreme Court directed the Centre to facilitate a meeting between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka executive heads to end the Cauvery water row, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday directed PWD minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and three officials to attend the meeting.
The apex court on Tuesday directed Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu for the next three days asked the Centre to facilitate the meeting with executive heads of both the states with ministry of water resources to recommend ways to break the impasse in the issue.
After the Supreme Court verdict, Jayalalithaa, who has been undergoing treatment in Apollo Hospitals here since Thursday night, convened an hour-long meeting with the senior officials in her room on Tuesday evening on the interim directions issued by the Supreme Court on the Cauvery issue.
The chief minister was apprised of the directions of the court on the applications filed by the states and the court orders thereafter to release water to Tamil Nadu on three occasions, an official release said.
“The CM directed PWD minister, chief secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, PWD secretary S K Prabakar and Cauvery Technical Cell chairman R Subramaniam to attend the meeting on behalf of state of Tamil Nadu,” the release said. The meeting of the executive heads of the states is likely to be scheduled on Thursday.
The meeting in Apollo Hospitals saw the participation of chief secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, advocate general R Muthukumaraswamy, advisor to government Sheela Balakrishnan, principal secretary I to chief minister K N Venkataramanan and secretary IV A Ramalingam.
Tami Nadu moved the apex court on Monday with a prayer not to hear Karnataka on any matter on the Cauvery issue until and unless the latter complies with and makes good the shortfall in releases.
Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospitals on Thursday night with “fever and dehydration” and has been under observation since then.