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Jaya lands Vajpayee another shiner

All India Anna DMK supremo J Jayalalitha on Friday charged that the Cauvery River Valley Authority, headed by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, is a "very big fraud" perpetrated on the poor farmers of Tamil Nadu.

Referring to the recent agreement to implement the Cauvery tribunal's interim award, she said in a five-page statement in Madras that the prime minister had ignored all aspects relevant to the release of water to Tamil Nadu during the crucial summer months and distress sharing.

Jayalalitha, whose party is a key ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre, had earlier warned of "disastrous consequences" if the Cauvery dispute was not resolved to the satisfaction of the Tamil farmers.

It was not clear whether Jayalalitha's reiteration of her position on the issue was intended to prepare the ground for what she herself described as the "the knock out punch" to Vajpayee and his colleagues.

She claimed that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and his Karnataka counterpart J H Patel had agreed to the solution formulated by the prime minister because both knew it was "totally meaningless."

The new authority would become defunct once the tribunal gave its final order by April 1999, she said, adding that the authority had no powers to implement the final award.

UNI

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