Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today (Feb 10, 2004) asserted in the State Assembly that she would not rest till the State got justice in the Cauvery water dispute.

Replying to a debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address to the Assembly, she denied an Opposition charge that the State did not attend the Cauvery river water authority (CRA) meetings.

After she took over as Chief Minister in 2001, there were six meetings of the CRA and she had participated in four of them. One meeting was held at short notice and she had asked Finance Minister C Ponnaiyan, who was in New Delhi to represent the State, she said, adding in another meeting the then Chief Minister O Pannerselvam had represented the State.

She said that Karnataka never abided by the orders of constitutional institutions like the Supreme Court and CRA.

DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), which was a part of the Vajpayee Ministry till recently, was not at all bothered about the State. Its Ministers in the Ministry never took up the issue with the Centre, she alleged, adding DMK president M Karunanidhi had gone on record that it was for the ruling party to take action on Cauvery issue.

"We will have a say at the Centre after the Lok Sabha polls as we will have sufficient number of MPs. We will get a fair deal in the dispute," she said.

"People would teach a lesson to those who betrayed the State on Cauvery issue," she said.