BENGALURU: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Saturday said that the Mekedatu project across the Cauvery will not affect any neighbouring state. His statement comes a day after an all-party delegation from Tamil Nadu met Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in Delhi over the Mekedatu project proposed by Karnataka.
According to Tamil Nadu, Shekhawat told its delegation that Karnataka will not be allowed to start construction until its Detailed Project Report (DPR) is approved by the Cauvery Water Management Authority. Reacting to this, Yediyurappa said his government will take all the required approvals before starting the project.
“We assure (to all stakeholders) that the project will not cause inconvenience to any state. We will speak to the minister concerned and to other state governments,” he said, adding that the project will strengthen the brotherhood between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Yediyurappa had recently written to his Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin calling for cooperation between the two states and suggested a bilateral meeting to address any apprehension about the Mekedatu project. Yediyurappa had said the proposed project will help both the states during distress years.
Meanwhile, several organisations in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have been protesting against the project. In Karnataka, farmers from Ramanagara have decided to take out a five-day padayatra from Mekedatu to Bengaluru on August 3, in favour of the project. Shekhawat, who was in Bengaluru recently, had termed the Mekedatu project a long-pending issue between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.