Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Friday reiterated Tamil Nadu’s opposition to the Karnataka’s government’s proposal to build a dam across the Cauvery at Mekedatu, and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reject the Detailed Project Report (DPR) prepared by the neighbouring State.
In a letter to Mr. Modi, Mr. Palaniswami sought his personal intervention in the matter and urged him to “instruct the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and the Central Water Commission (CWC) to reject outright and return the DPR of the Mekedatu project submitted by Karnataka.”
Further clearances
Mr. Palaniswami’s letter to the PM comes in the wake of Karnataka’s submission in the Supreme Court on January 21 that it had furnished the DPR before the CWC on January 18 for the Mekedatu balancing reservoir-cum-drinking water project and had requested further clearances for the project. “The unilateral action of Karnataka proposing to construct a new reservoir at Mekedatu, for which the Detailed Project Report has been presented to the CWC, is a clear violation of the judgment of the Supreme Court dated February 16, 2018,” the CM said, and further recalled his earlier communications to the PM in November and December last year.
Plea in SC
The State government had filed an application before the Supreme Court on November 30 last year, seeking a direction to the CWC to withdraw the permission granted to Karnataka for the preparation of the DPR for the project.
“Therefore, the matter is already before the Supreme Court. Several lakh farmers of Tamil Nadu who depend on Cauvery water are agitated by the fact that they will be deprived of their due share of water as per the judgment of the Supreme Court dated February 16, 2018, if Mekedatu or any such project is taken up in the Cauvery basin by upper riparian States,” Mr. Palaniswami said.
