Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Thursday passed a unanimous resolution urging the Centre to restrain the Karnataka Government from constructing a balancing reservoir cum drinking water project across river Cauvery at Mekedatu.
Also, the resolution condemned Central Water Commission (CWC) for giving its nod to Karnataka government to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Mekedatu project.
The resolution moved by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and proposed by Leader of the House and Deputy CM O. Panneerselvam, was unanimously adopted after the leaders of various political parties expressed their concern over Karnataka's move and said it would affect the livelihood of farmers, who would be deprived of water for irrigation.
Moving the resolution, the CM said, the House had unanimously adopted resolutions on December 5, 2014 and on March 27, 2015, saying Karnataka should not go ahead with the construction of the dam at Mekedatu.
"Despite the Supreme Court judgment that the upper riparian States should not implement any projects without the consent of the lower riparian States, as well as the resolution passed by the Assembly, the Karnataka government has proposed to commence the preliminary works to construct a dam at Mekedatu," the resolution said.
It further said, "This august House strongly condemns and opposes this action of the government of Karnataka and the Central Water Commission for having given permission to Karnataka on November 22, 2018 to prepare a DPR." The resolution passed following a brief discussion, urged the Union Water Resources Ministry to immediately order the Cauvery Water Commission (CWC) to withdraw the permission given to Karnataka for preparing the DPR. The Assembly was adjourned sine die after adopting the resolution.
