Mekedatu row: Tamil Nadu delegation meets Union jal shakti minister

CHENNAI: A delegation of legislature party leaders led by Tamil Nadu water resources minister Duraimurugan on Wednesday urged Union jal shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat to not allow deliberation on the Mekedatu dam plan of the Karnataka government in the Cauvery Water Management Authority’s (CWMA) meeting.
On Tuesday, the CMWA put off its scheduled meeting from June 23 to July 6 following a request from the Tamil Nadu government.
Duraimurugan said the delegation told the Union minister that the CWMA should not discuss the dam proposal of the upper riparian state since it had no authority to discuss the subject.
“The meeting with the Union minister was cordial. They (CWMA through the ministry) had obtained legal opinion to discuss the issue. We said we would also get a legal opinion. We were told that the issue could be discussed in the next meeting and find a solution,” Duraimurugan said.
Like the assurances made in the past, the Union minister said that the Karnataka government could not build a dam across Cauvery without the consent of Tamil Nadu.
The delegation included MPs S S Palanimanickam (DMK) M Thambidurai (AIADMK) and Vaiko (MDMK), MLAs K Selvaperunthagai (Congress), G K Mani (PMK), S S Balaji (VCK), Nainar Nagendran (BJP) T Ramachandran (CPI), M H Jawahirullah (MMK), T Velmurugan (TVK) and M Jagan Moorthy (PB) and CPM central committee member P Shanmugam.
In a related development, the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change has recently delisted from its portal (Parivesh) the Karnataka government’s request for grant of Terms of Reference for environment study. Following objections from Tamil Nadu government, the ministry’s expert appraisal committee in July 2019 opined that an amicable solution should be arrived at between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and put up for reconsideration of the request.