BENGALURU: The Karnataka government has decided to implead itself in a case on the Mekedatu issue brought before a Madurai court in Tamil Nadu. Private persons in that state have filed the case, questioning the drinking water and balancing reservoir project proposed by Karnataka.
“Neither the Madurai court has jurisdiction over inter-state water disputes nor the petitioners have any locus standi. The Supreme Court has said it on many occasions in the past. So, we have decided to implead in the case and argue the same,” chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said in Delhi on Thursday.
He held a meeting with legal and technical experts to chalk out strategies for tackling the water-sharing disputes with neighbouring states. He sought steps to get various water-related cases before the Supreme Court disposed of at the earliest. Ministers and advocate general Prabhuling Navadgi were part of the meeting.
Reiterating that a river interlinking project being taken up by Tamil Nadu is illegal, the chief minister said that another petition opposing the work would be submitted to the Centre. “I have also instructed the legal team to make Karnataka’s stand clear when Tamil Nadu’s miscellaneous petition pertaining to the Mekedatu project comes up for hearing in the Supreme Court,” he said. Bommai has also asked the legal team to prepare ground to press for notification of the final verdict of the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal in the gazette when the hearing of an interlocutory application filed by the state comes up for hearing. The Telangana government has filed an SLP seeking higher share of the Krishna water.
Bommai said that he had met senior advocates Mohan Khatri and Shyam Divan and discussed ways to proceed in view of the existing water disputes. The row over the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project on Mahadayi River was also discussed. The hearing of this case is listed for September 2.
