Thursday, July 14 2005 13:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: The DMK (Dravida Munnetta Kazhakam), an important constituent of the ruling UPA (United Progressive Alliance) at the Centre, today said the decision to divest from BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited) was against the Common Minimum Programme (CMP)and called for strictly adhering to the CMP.

"There should not be any deviation from the CMP", DMK president M Karunanidhi told reporters here yesterday night (July 13, 2005).

On one or two issues in the past, there had been some deviation from the CMP and the BHEL decision was one among them, he said.

He said he had already written to UPA chairperson Sonia gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh about it.

Karunanidhi, who was speaking after a meeting of leaders of the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance in the state today, said the Centre should intervene immediately and ask Karnataka to release water in the Cauvery river. The meeting also passed a resolution in this regard.

Karunanidhi said a delegation of central ministers and MPs from Tamil Nadu would meet the Prime Minister to request him to take steps in this regard.

The resolution blamed the Tamil Nadu government for adopting a 'lethargic' attitude towards the plight of the Cauvery Delta farmers and said the Centre should intervene in the matter and do the needful for the Karnataka government to release water.

It was regretable that the Karnataka government was refusing to release water, in spite of the fact it had dams across the Cauvery river, which were now full, it said.

'UPA says hike in petroleum price was unavoidable'

Asked whether the Centre had given any explanation on the petroleum products price hike, which he wanted to be withdrawn, Karunanidhi said 'the Centre has put forth the same arguments like the NDA government, which had stated that the hike is unavoidable due to international prices of crude".

Denying that there were differences among DPA constituents in the state, he said it was only the media, which was circulating such reports.

He alleged that the AIADMK government was using the police to create a split among the DPA constituents.

Asked whether the efforts to split the DPA would succeed, he said 'There is no need for me to answer this question'.

The meeting passed 18 resolutions, condemning several 'undemocratic' and 'anti-people' acts of the AIADMK government, which the alliance said was 'running a police raj in the state'.

The meeting also decided to hold public meetings all over the state in the first week of August to explain the resolutions to the people.

The resolution condemned the government 'inaction' in solving growing unemployment, malpractices in the Tsunami relief work and in the food for work programme, inability to provide water for agricultural operations and for drinking purposes and the 'utter chaos' in the field of education.