Cauvery Dispute Rears Its Head. Vijay Writes to PM
The Supreme Court had held that the upper riparian State shall not take any action so as to affect the scheduled deliveries of water to the lower riparian State, he pointed out.
Chennai: Urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to instruct officers in the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) and the Central Water Commission (CWC) to reject the detailed project report of Karnataka for the construction of a dam across River Cauvery in Mekedatu, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay said it was surprising that the proposal was being entertained without considering the plea of Tamil Nadu.
The MoJS and the CWC, which had been mandated to implement in letter and spirit the Supreme Court judgment of February 16, 2018, and the Final Award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) were entertaining the proposal of Karnataka, which had announced ‘Bhoomi Puja’ of the reservoir in utter violation of the SC order and CWDT award, Vijay said in his letter to Modi on Tuesday.
The public utterances of the Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister, D K Shivakumar on the issue, had caused a lot of concern among lakhs of farmers in Tamil Nadu, who depended on the waters of River Cauvery for their livelihood, he said.
Since the project proposal was in contravention to the CWDT final order, dated February 5, 2007 and the SC judgment, besides a blatant violation of existing environmental laws, Vijay wanted the Prime Minister to advise Karnataka to not take up any new project without getting the concurrence of co-basin States.
A solution to the sensitive Cauvery water dispute was obtained after a three-decade long legal battle and the judgment of February 16, 2018 was under implementation, he said, adding that Mekedatu was not in the list of projects permitted by the tribunal, which had been affirmed by the SC judgment.
Planning any new project across Cauvery or its tributaries, other than those specifically permitted by the tribunal would tantamount to interfering with the SC judgment, he said and alleged that by proposing a new project with a storage capacity of 67.16 TMC just upstream of the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, Karnataka was attempting to prevent the flows from the uncontrolled catchment, one of the 3 sources from which the flows were ensured to Tamil Nadu.
The Supreme Court had held that the upper riparian State shall not take any action so as to affect the scheduled deliveries of water to the lower riparian State, he pointed out.
When Karnataka attempted to obtain Terms of Reference (ToR) for conducting EIA study, the Expert Appraisal Committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF & CC) returned the proposal on the ground that inter State issues involved and wanting an amicable resolution to be arrived between the States, he said.