The Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on Friday, urging the Centre not to grant any technical or environmental clearance for the dams proposed by Karnataka and Kerala in the Cauvery basin without consulting the Tamil Nadu government.
The resolution, moved by Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, also urged the Centre to form the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and the Water Regulatory Committee immediately to enable the State to realise its monthly quota under the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. Despite the award having been notified in the Central gazette in February 2013, no effort had been made so far to set up the board or the committee.
The Centre should also take steps to prevent Karnataka from building two dams at Mekedatu or commissioning drinking water projects that violated the final award. It should also ask Karnataka not to take up any water project in the Cauvery basin without Tamil Nadu’s permission.
Similarly, the Centre should ask Kerala not to build a dam across the Pambar at Pattiseri till the CMB was instituted, the resolution said. Without consulting Tamil Nadu, the Union Ministry for Water Resources and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests should not grant technical and environmental clearance, the Chief Minister said.
The Opposition parties, except the DMK members who were evicted from the House earlier in the day, asked the Chief Minister to lead an all-party delegation to New Delhi and represent the State’s case to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
