TN CM Vijay urges PM Modi to reject Karnataka’s DPR for Mekedatu project
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct officials of the Ministry of Jal Shakti and the Central Water Commission (CWC) to reject the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the proposed Mekedatu project.
In a communication to the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister stated that the project proposal was in violation of the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) issued on February 5, 2007, and the judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on February 16, 2018.
He also requested the Centre to advise the Karnataka government not to undertake any new project in the Cauvery basin without obtaining the concurrence of the co-basin states and not to violate the Supreme Court judgment in any manner.
The CM said in his letter to PM, “I wish to bring to your notice that Karnataka has announced the “Bhoomi Puja” of the Mekedatu reservoir on the river Cauvery. The public utterances of the Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka to this effect, has caused a lot of concern among the lakhs of farmers of Tamil Nadu”.
Mekedatu Project is not in the list of projects permitted by the tribunal. There is no scope for additional utilization or for creating new huge storage reservoir, since the Cauvery basin is found to be deficit basin and the available water at 50 percent dependability has already been allocated to the party states, Vijay added.
The CM said planning any new project across the Cauvery or its tributaries, other than those specifically permitted by the Tribunal in its final award and upheld by the Supreme Court judgment, would amount to interfering with the verdict.