What is happening ? No real break-through yet! Second set of Demands 1. Refer the Cauvery dispute to the International Court of Justice. 2. Tamil medium upto the 10th class in Tamil Nadu. 3. The release by the Tamil Nadu Government of five prisoners of the Tamil National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Tamil National Retrieval Troops (TNRT). 4. Payment of compensation to the rape victims of Vachathi and Chinnampathi in Dharmapuri districts. Demands released earlier Demand 1: Karnataka should immediately release 205 tmcf of water to Tamil Nadu. Response: A Cauvery River Authority has been constituted under the Prime Minister and this body will take appropriate action. Demand 2: Compensation should be paid to all the victims of the Cauvery waters agitation of 1991. Response: The Supreme Court has constituted a Cauvery Rivers Disputes Authority, made up of three judges. The authority has received 10,000 petitions from Karnataka and 2,000 from Tamil Nadu. The authority will give its verdict in 12 months. The issue of compensation will be referred to it. Demand 3: Tamil should be made the additional official language in Karnataka. Response: Government instructions lay down that wherever the linguistic minority exceeds 15 per cent of the population, their language should be given official status. Demand 4: Karnataka should take immediate steps to install a statue of Tamil saint- poet Tiruvalavur. Response: Statues of Tiruvalavur and Sarvagna, a Kannada saint-poet, will be installed in Bangalore and Chennai. Demand 5: Vacation of the stay granted by the High Court on the proceedings of the Sadashiv Committee, that is probing the atrocities that are alleged to have been committed by the Special Task Force that has been constituted to track down Veerappan. This apart, Rs 1 million be paid as compensation to the victims of the rapes that are alleged to have been committed by the men of the STF. Response: The National Human Rights Commission is studying the issue and necessary action will be taken after its report is received. Demand 6: "Innocent people who have been jailed" in Tamil Nadu should be released. Response: All those held under the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (TADA) act have already been released. The charges against them will be dropped. Demand 7: Compensation should be paid to the families of nine persons belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes who have been killed. Response: This will be seriously considered. Demand 8: The Tamil Nadu government should pay a procurement price of Rs 15 per kg for the green leaf tea that is grown in the Nilgiris. Response: The Central government and the government of Tamil Nadu have already taken steps to increase the subsidy. The procurement price is currently Rs 9.50 per kg. Demand 9: Five persons imprisoned in Tamil Nadu should be released. There is no response to this demand. The inference is that the five are those who have been incarcerated in the Rajiv Gandhi murder case. Demand 10: The minimum wages paid in the tea and coffee plantations in the Manjoli estate in Tamil Nadu should be immediately raised to Rs 150 a day. Response: The minimum wage is currently Rs 139 a day. Negotiations will be held on this issue. Ransom of Rs 50 crore is not discussed. The negitiations are expected to be in order to reduce the ransom toa couple of crores. Amnesty is not being discussed