Southern CMs raised Cauvery, Mullaiperiyar and Mekedatu disputes at the Zonal Council meeting, along with concerns over delimitation and water sharing.
Protracted thorny inter-state disputes like the Mullaiperiyar issue and the Cauvery wrangle reared their head at the 31st Southern Zonal Council, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, at the Fishermen’s Cove beach resort at Kovalam near Mahabalipuram on Friday when the Chief Ministers concerned put forth their viewpoints,, indicating their firm stands on the disputes.
Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, who is the vice chairperson of the council, was seated next to his Karnataka counterpart D K Shivakumar, who flagged the issue of the Mekedatu project, stressing that it was important not only for his state, but for Tamil Nadu as well, though Tamil Nadu has been opposing the construction of the balancing reservoir at Mekedatu tooth and nail.
Kerala Chief Minister V D Satheesan, who said in a social media post that he had an interaction with Vijay along with P K Kunhalikutty, Kerala Minister for Industries and Information Technology, and shared a photograph of his meeting with Vijay, wanted the decommissioning of the Mullaiperiyar dam that had been in the centre of the dispute for decades, reviving an old demand of Kerala.
Shivakumar said that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had told him, while walking down to the conclave venue. that the Cauvery water issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu should be solved. Naidu also assured a supply of 500 TMC water from the linking of Cauvery and Godavari to solve Tamil Nadu’s water crisis, he said.
The Karnataka Chief Minister said every drop of water from the Mekedatu project would help farmers in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and requested Tamil Nadu: ’help us help you.
While Tamil Nadu has been opposed to the Mekedatu project as it would harm the state's interests by blocking all the water flow from Cauvery, Shivakumar, in a social media post, said the meeting was an opportunity to engage with the Chief Ministers, their deputies, ministers and senior officials from across the southern region.
Shared priorities and issues concerning the progress, development and interests of the region were discussed, he said, adding that Karnataka remained committed to working together with neighbouring states to strengthen the South and contribute to a stronger India.
Shivakumar also raised the delimitation issue, sharing the same view of Tamil Nadu. He urged the Southern Zonal Council to adopt a resolution calling on the Union government to honour the 1971 census as the basis for delimitation and retain Lok Sabha's existing strength of 543 seats for the next 25 years and accommodate women's reservation within these existing seats.
The southern states' success in controlling population must not become a reason for reducing its political voice, Shivakumar said and welcomed the assurance that no southern state would lose seats. ‘But representation is not only about numbers. It is about weight, and about voice,’ he said.
Satheesan, however, urged Tamil Nadu to build its own dam at Mullaiperiyar in its own territory and assured to bear the cost. He also assured to provide the full share of water from Mullaipeiyar to the neighbouring State.
But he claimed that the present dam in Kerala soil that had been storing water for the use of some dry regions of Tamil Nadu since 1895 was not strong enough and that it was unsafe with a potential to endanger the lives of people downstream.
This has been the claim of Kerala ever since the dispute over the Mullaiperiyar dam broke out between the two states with Tamil Nadu approaching the courts for succor. Now this old claim saw a revival at the Southern Zonal Council, which comprises the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana,and the Union Territories of Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
