Mekedatu Controversy Rears its Head Again

Chennai: Denying reports on the Supreme Court granting permission for the construction of the controversial Mekedatu dam across River Cauvery, State Minister for Water Resources Durai Murugan averred on Thursday that the DMK government would never give up on the rights of delta farmers and would nip in the bud any attempt to build the dam as it had resisted the project of Karnataka in the last four years.

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Edappadi K Palaniswami and PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss accused the DMK of failing to protect the interest of delta farmers by giving up on its fight against Mekedatu dam since the Central Water Commission (CWC) had allowed the preparation of the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the dam.

Clearing the doubts on the legal questions surrounding Mekedatu, DMK Rajya Sabha member and senior counsel, P Wilson, said the Supreme Court had directed the Tamil Nadu government to approach expert bodies as it was premature to move the Supreme Court since the DPR has not yet been approved. Only after the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) issued its orders on the dam construction could a legal remedy be sought, he said.

Durai Murugan, in his statement on Thursday, said Tamil Nadu would put forward its strong arguments on the case as before the CWMA and the CWC as directed by the Supreme Court. He also said that the Supreme Court had ordered that no decision could be taken on the issue without hearing the arguments of Tamil Nadu, he said.

Tracing the genesis of the controversy over the Mekedatu dam, he said that when the Karnataka government unilaterally submitted a feasibility report on the construction of the dam across River Cauvery with a capacity to hold 67 TMC water to the Central Water Resources Commission in 2018, the DMK government moved the Supreme Court against it.

In 2020, when Karnataka approached the Union Ministry for Climate Change, Environment and Forests to obtain the terms of reference for the environmental impact report, Tamil Nadu stopped the attempt by filing a petition in the Supreme Court, he said.

Later, when the Karnataka government allocated Rs 1000 crore for the construction of the Mekedatu dam in its annual budget, Tamil Nadu conveyed its opposition to it and passed a resolution in the Assembly urging the Union Government and the CWMA to not grant permission for the project on March 21, 2022, he said.

Chief Minister M K Stalin also personally took up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he personally met him on March 31, 2022, and May 26, 2022, and requested that no permission be granted for the dam project, he said.

At around the same time, when the Union Government expressed the view that the CWMA had the powers to discuss the issue relating to the construction of the dam, Tamil Nadu opposed the move through a petition in the Supreme Court, he said adding that it was a series of such steps taken by the government that stopped the Mekedatu project.

The Minister said that the construction of the dam would affect the farmers of Tamil Nadu as it would reduce the flow of water from the Cauvery to the State considerably particularly during droughts and years that see low rainfall.