Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Tuesday strongly objected to Karnataka’s bid to seek approval for the Mekedatu dam project at the fifth Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) meeting in New Delhi. Following the objections, the CWMA dropped the discussion on Karnataka’s application.
Tamil Nadu Public Works Department Principal Secretary K. Manivasan told mediapersons after the meeting that Tamil Nadu had consistently maintained that the dam should never be built and that two cases were pending before the Supreme Court.
“As per the directions of our Chief Minister, we strongly opposed Karnataka’s proposal for constructing the dam and informed the meeting about the cases at the Supreme Court and that this proposal should not be discussed,” he said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami had written to Union Minister for MoEF Prakash Javadekar in October last year objecting to Karnataka’s project proposal and that it had no right to construct a reservoir on an inter-State river without the consent of the lower riparian State. The State has also moved the Supreme Court against the proposal.
