July 18 is, of late, remembered as Tamil Nadu Day as it was on this date in 1967 Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai moved a resolution in the Assembly for renaming the Madras State as Tamil Nadu. But, this year, it also marked the 30th anniversary of a four-day fast observed by Jayalalithaa during her first innings as the Chief Minister. And this was an event that went unnoticed.
The fast was over the Cauvery issue, a matter that has been a part of the political discourse in this region of the country for over 100 years. The period in which Jayalalithaa went on the fast was in the initial years of the phase of the Cauvery dispute after the interim order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. The Tribunal gave its order in June 1991 mandating Karnataka to ensure that the Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu realised 205 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) of water annually (June-May). A monthly schedule was also drawn up. Karnataka had, for long, opposed the route of tribunal and the interim order. The beginning of the water year 1993-94 saw the southwest monsoon playing truant in the Cauvery catchments, and according to the Karnataka government, except in Kabini, the storage in other reservoirs did not provide any comfort. As per the schedule, Tamil Nadu should have got 10.16 tmc ft in June and 42.76 tmc ft in July, whereas, that year, the State had realised 4.82 tmc ft in June and 7.4 tmc ft in the first half of July.
