BENGALURU: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday urged the Union Government not to give nod to Tamil Nadu’s intra-state Cauvery-Vellaru-Vaigai-Gundar river-linking project until Karnataka’s Mekedatu project is cleared.
Bommai, who was in Delhi, met Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju, on Thursday. During his meeting with Shekhawat, Bommai discussed several water projects with the minister. The CM also sought national project status for the Upper Bhadra Project. Bommai, who had earlier served as the state’s water resources minister, said,
“We discussed Tamil Nadu’s river-linking project. I have urged the Centre not to clear the project till Mekedatu project is cleared.”
The 260-km Cauvery-Vellaru-Vaigai-Gundar river-linking project will enable certain areas of Tamil Nadu to use about 45 tmcft of water to green certain drier pockets of the state. Karnataka, which first raised the issue many months ago, has already filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking injunction to prevent the Jal Shakti Ministry granting permission to Tamil Nadu to go ahead with the project.
And, in response, the apex court had posted the matter to January 2022 seeking responses from the lower riparian states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Bommai also urged the union government not to go ahead with the detailed project report on the Godavari-Krishna-Mahanadi-Cauvery river-linking project without consulting the Karnataka government.
Tamil Nadu has been opposing the Mekedatu project. Karnataka has been arguing that the project is a multipurpose (drinking and power) project that involves building a balancing reservoir near Kanakapura.