Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Wednesday has asked Union Minister of Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar to instruct the Expert Appraisal Committee for River Valley and Hydro electric Projects to withdraw the subject of grant of fresh terms of reference (TOR) to Karnataka for Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir and Drinking Water Project.
In a letter, the Chief Minister urged the Ministry to direct the committee to desist from entertaining the proposal of Karnataka in future and reject the present proposal.
“I have, on June 24, written to the Prime Minister seeking his personal intervention to deny permission to the proposal of Cauvery Neeravari Nigama Niyamita for grant of Terms of Reference to obtain Environmental Clearance for Mekedatu project,” he said.
However, despite that, the Expert Appraisal Committee for River Valley and Hydro electric Projects, functioning under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, has included the proposal of Karnataka for grant of fresh Terms of Reference to Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir and Drinking Water Project at its meeting scheduled to be held on July 19.
The action of the committee to include the proposal of Karnataka for discussion in the meeting was a violation of the notified final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the judgment of the Supreme Court, Mr. Palaniswami said.
Violation of SC ruling
Tamil Nadu had been conveying its strong objections and had been urging the Government of India to reject outright the proposal of Karnataka as it violated the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal as modified by the Supreme Court.
Further, Karnataka had not obtained the prior concurrence of the Tamil Nadu government and other riparian States. The Cauvery Basin being a deficit Basin, construction of Mekedatu or any project in any place by an upper riparian State would drastically affect lower riparian States in getting their due share of water.
The Tamil Nadu government had filed an interlocutory application before the Supreme Court against the proposal for constructing a reservoir and a contempt petition against all concerned and the matter was pending in the Supreme Court, he added.
Writes to Shekhawat
In a similar letter to Minister of Jal Shakthi Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the Chief Minister said the decision to discuss the proposal at the July 19 meeting itself was a “violation of the Notified Final Order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the judgement of the Supreme Court.”
