The contentious Mekedatu dam, envisaged across the Cauvery to supply drinking water to Bangalore and Ramanagaram, has for months been a bone of contention between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
The then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had written to the then prime minister Manmohan Singh urging him to advice Karnataka government not to take up any schemes in the Cauvery basin without the consent of Tamil Nadu.
Karnataka invites Expression of Interest from global consultants to take up a drinking water project at Mekedatu in Kanakapura taluk of Ramanagaram district. This project designed to be bigger than the Krishnaraja Sagar
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in his budget speech proposed preparing a detailed project report for construction of “balancing reservoir” on the upstream of Mekedatu across Cauvery river in Kanakapura taluk in Ramanagaram district.
Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly moved a unanimous resolution urging the Centre to stop the proposed project by Karnataka. Irrigation Minister M.B. Patil says the State’s legal team set to fight Tamil Nadu's objections to the proposed project across the Cauvery.
Tamil Nadu parliamentarians, cutting across party lines, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Farmers’ bodies call for a Tamil Nadu bandh on March 28 over the Mekadatu dam row.
Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda visited the site. There is “no logic” in Tamil Nadu’s objection. “The project will utilise water that flows into the sea and Tamil Nadu need not be apprehensive.”