Chief Minister Siddaramaiah believes that the Mekedatu balancing reservoir project is more beneficial to Tamil Nadu than Karnataka, and would help people in the lower riparian State during a distress year.
On July 29, he was at Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) reservoir near Mysuru to offer ’bagina’, the traditional thanksgiving, to river Cauvery after the maximum level of 124.80 feet was reached this monsoon.
Mr. Siddaramaiah attributed the objections in Tamil Nadu to the project to political reasons.
Though the issue of sharing Cauvery water has been settled in the Supreme Court, and Karnataka is supposed to release 177.25 thousand million cubic (tmc) feet, this order is applicable only during a normal year, and not in a year of deficit rainfall. ‘’Tamil Nadu has a right to 177.25 tmc ft, but only during a normal monsoon,” he explained.
Karnataka had released excess water during 2022-23, and on many occasions earlier whenever there was copious rainfall, but all of it ended up in the sea.
‘’The balancing reservoir at Mekedatu will not only help meet the drinking water requirements of the people of Bengaluru, but will also enable Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu during a distress year, as 65 tmc ft of water can be impounded, which would otherwise end up in the sea,” he said.
He criticised the Centre for not giving permission for the Mekedatu project, and MPs of BJP and JD(S) for their failure to air Karnataka’s concerns in Parliament.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said that modernisation and repair of feeder canals, including Visvesvaraya canal, will be taken up and completed as farmers in the tail-end of the canals are not receiving water.
Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said that Mekedatu is the solution for sharing of water. He recalled the padayatra undertaken by the Congress for speedy implementation of the project.
Earlier, Mr. Siddaramaiah offered ‘bagina’ (traditional thanksgiving) at the reservoir, accompanied by Mr. Shivakumar, Minister for Agriculture N. Cheluvarayaswamy, Minister for Social Welfare H.C. Mahadevappa, Minister for Animal Husbandry Venkatesh, and others.
The dignitaries offered prayers and offered bagina amidst chanting of hymns while praying for the welfare of the people of Karnataka.
The Chief Minister later offered flowers to the statue of Goddess Cauvery abutting the dam.
The tradition of offering bagina was dispensed with in 2023 as Karnataka was in the grip of an unprecedented drought, and the water level in the reservoir was below its capacity.
