Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has sought fresh appointment from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 30 to meet him along with an all-party delegation from the State to convince him about the importance of the proposed Mekedatu drinking water project for Karnataka.
According to sources, in the Chief Minister’s secretariat, Mr. Siddaramaiah has written a letter in this regard to the Prime Minister on Tuesday. Mr. Siddaramaiah had sought the appointment on April 22 itself. However, his secretariat maintained that it could not get an appointment for that day. Hence a fresh appointment has been sought, it said.
An assurance regarding taking the all-party delegation to the prime minister had been made by the chief minister to the pro-Kannada organisations when they had called for a State bandh on April 22 demanding that the state should immediately implement the Mekedatu project.
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Tamil Nadu has opposed the Mekedatu project under which a balancing reservoir is proposed to be built across Cauvery River for utilising the excess water for taking care of the drinking water needs of Bengaluru city and the surrounding parched districts. Taking exception to the neighbouring State’s opposition to the drinking water project, the chief minister has already made it clear that the project would not come in the way of releasing Tamil Nadu’s share of Cauvery water.