BENGALURU: As pressure is mounting on leaders of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the Mekedatu dam project across Cauvery river on the Karnataka side of the border, the Centre wants both states to sit together and resolve issues — a step that Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had initiated on July 3 through a letter to his Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin, seeking cooperation and proposing a bilateral meeting. But Yediyurappa’s initiative failed to evoke the expected results as Stalin urged the Karnataka CM not to go ahead with the project.
Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Tuesday told The New Indian Express, “All such issues have to be ultimately resolved by holding discussions. Now, we can do it with conviction, otherwise the next generation has to do it under compulsion.”
A day after Stalin held an all-party meeting that passed a resolution urging the Centre not to accord clearances to the project, Yediyurappa on Tuesday asserted that Karnataka has every right to go ahead with it. Karnataka has clarified that the `9,000-crore project is a drinking water and power generation scheme that will not have any impact on releasing TN’s share of 192 tmcft of water in a normal year. The State has tried to allay concerns expressed by TN, which is opposing the project on the grounds that it would affect its farmers. A delegation from Tamil Nadu had met Shekhawat recently, expressing these concerns.
Shekhawat, who was in Bengaluru on Tuesday to review the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission, termed the Mekedatu project a long-pending issue between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.“The Government of India has to be impartial and do justice to all the stakeholders. We will work with that principle,” he said, responding to a question on the Centre’s stand on the project that has yet again fuelled a political battle between the two neighbouring states with both sticking to their stands.
Shekhawat said that in such projects, it is a set principle that the consent of co-basin states has to be taken. “We will find a way to resolve the issue.The decision has to be taken with the consensus of all the states. We will make everyone sit together, discuss and get it done. It is our duty and we will do it,” he said.“In fact, it should be a subject of hydrology (study of distribution and movement of water) and engineers, but unfortunately it has become a subject of emotions and politics. It is not a healthy development,” he added.
If the states are not agreeable due to some political reasons, they have to identify other options, he said. “Only because of resistance from one or more states, the resources cannot be wasted. Ultimately, we have to sit and find out some way,” he said, adding that the matter is sub-judice as the states have approached courts.