Today, with the ongoing water crisis in Chennai, the AIADMK led Tamil Nadu government has announced that it would be bringing in 10 MLD(million litres per day) drinking water from Jolarpettai, Vellore into the city. While the DMK is holding a statewide protest against the current water crisis in Chennai, Durai Murugan, a DMK MLA from Vellore has said that they would be protesting against the decision of bringing water in from Jolarpettai.
He had warned the government that if the water were to be taken from Jolarpettai, the DMK would be arranging a massive protest in the Vellore District.
Yesterday, in a press conference, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami announced that the government has sanctioned Rs 65 crore to bring water from Jolarpettai to Chennai by train for six months.
The DMK has warned of protests in Vellore despite welcoming water from other states. Two days ago the DMK President, MK Stalin, had thanked the Kerala CM’s offer to provide drinking water to Tamil Nadu. He had also urged the government to work with Kerala to solve the crisis.
https://twitter.com/mkstalin/status/1141716182271066113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had earlier offered to help Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu had rejected the offer saying that it wasn’t required as of now. Yesterday, they had decided to accept the offer and also requested the state if they could provide with 20 MLD as the city had a requirement of 525 MLD of drinking water.
The DMK is currently staging a massive statewide protest against the ruling government, holding them responsible for the current water crisis.
Chennai has been reeling under an acute water shortage crisis for several weeks now after four major reservoirs have completely dried up. The city had 62% shortfall in rainfall last year and has seen mismanagement of water resources over the years. The city would be facing a difficult time until the next northeast monsoon which occurs in October-November.