Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami made a slew of demands to the Centre to improve the State’s water resources, including a request to reject Karnataka’s proposal to build a dam at Mekedatu across the River Cauvery, at a meeting with Union Minister for Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat,
Karnataka has been constructing an anicut across River Penniyar, Palaniswami said and urged the Centre to form a tribunal to settle the dispute that had arisen over that.
He said Tamil Nadu was a water deficient State with no perennial rivers and it was dependent on the monsoon. Hence the State would need the Centre’s support, he said, placing the demands.
Demanding the National Water Development Authority (NWDA) to expeditiously prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR) on the proposed Godavari-Cauvery River Link and also start the work on the project, the Chief Minister wanted Tamil Nadu to be allotted 200 TMC water from it.
Also he wanted the DPR on the Cauvery-Gundar Link, being prepared by NWDA, to be send to fast track the work that was within the State and also urged the Centre to sanction the Rs 10,700 crore project, ‘Nandandhai Vaazhi Cauvery,’ and take it up as a national project like the Namami Ganga Project.’
Palanisami also asked for including Tamil Nadu in Atal Bhujal Yojana, which is a World Bank supported scheme and to incorporate the corrections requested by Tamil Nadu on the Dam Safety Bill.
He told the Jal Shakti Minister that the Jal Jeevan Mission was being implemented in the state and that four lakh water connections to households had already been given.
