The Cauvery Retrieval Committee has urged the State government to explain to the people of Tamil Nadu how it is going to thwart the persistent attempts by the Karnataka government to make its ambition of constructing a dam across the Cauvery river at Mekedatu a reality.
In a statement issued here on Tuesday, the Committee Coordinator, P.Maniarasan has pointed out that responding to a question on the Mekedatu project from Janata Dal (Secular) MP, Prajwal Revanna, recently at the Parliament, the Union Minister of State, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ashwini Kumar Choubey has replied that the Detailed Project Report was under active consideration of the Ministry.
He went on to record that the MEFCC would decide on this issue after the Ministry of Water Resources and the Cauvery Water Management Authority accept the DPR submitted by the Karnataka government, claimed Mr.Maniarasan.
Already the Ministry of Water Resources had already accepted the DPR in principle and had forwarded it to the CWMA for its consent. The CWMA consistently includes the DPR in the agenda for its meeting and subsequently removes it from the list of points for discussion in view of the strong opposition from Tamil Nadu.
Under these circumstances, the CWMA has rescheduled its meetings thrice from December last and finally postponed the same, he said.
The Authority’s act of rescheduling and postponing of the CWMA discussion meetings might be an indication from the Chairman, Sowmitra Kumar Haldar that the Authority would not be interested to discuss any issues relating to the Cauvery river water sharing unless the Tamil Nadu government concedes to the discussion over the Mekedatu dam project DPR.
Stating that construction of a dam at Mekedatu would ruin the irrigation and drinking water requirement of Tamil Nadu which had never received the monthly quota of water in Cauvery as per the Supreme Court order, the Committee wanted the Tamil Nadu government to come out publicly on how it was going to tackle this issue and save the Tamil Nadu people’s legitimate right over Cauvery river.
