Terming the Tamil Nadu government’s move to utilise the excess water in the Cauvery basin as ‘illegal,’ Home, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said that Karnataka will challenge the new link scheme of Tamil Nadu in the Supreme Court.
Speaking to presspersons here after participating in a high-level meeting of technical and legal experts here, Mr. Bommai said that the Cauverytribunal has not allocated the surplus amount of water to any State . “When such is the case, it is not right on their part to devise a scheme to utilise the excess water.”
Last Sunday, Tamil Nadu government laid the foundation for the Cauvery-Vellaru-Vaigai-Gundar link scheme to utilise about 42 tmc ft. of water in the Cauvery basin and supply to its southern districts. This, sources said, was above the allocation that Tamil Nadu gets under the tribunal award. While the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal awarded 419 tmc ft. of water annually to Tamil Nadu in 2007, the Supreme Court revised it to 404 tmc ft. in 2018.
He said that Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has already written to the Union government, raising the opposition to the project. The State government has asked the legal team to mount a challenge effectively against the scheme in the Supreme Court, he added.
Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jharkiholi, who chaired the meeting, said that the State government will legally and politically challenge Tamil Nadu.
