Cauvery Authority dropped deliberation on Mekedatu after objection, says TN Govt

PTI, Aug 31, 2021, 7:57 PM IST

Chennai/Bengaluru: The Cauvery Water Management Authority in its meeting in Delhi on Tuesday avoided discussion on the Mekedatu dam proposal of Karnataka after Tamil Nadu strongly objected to it, the state government said.

The CWMA also directed Karnataka to release 27.86 Thousand Million Cubic feet of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, which is the shortfall as against the entitlement of 86.38 TMC water for the period ending August 30 in addition to the due for September, the Tamil Nadu government said.

Karnataka has released only 57.04 TMC water as on August 30.

Though Mekedatu was mentioned as a subject in the agenda for the meeting, a discussion on it was dropped following Tamil Nadu”s strong objection, an official release here said quoting the proceedings of the 13th meeting of the authority held in the national capital.

At the outset, Tamil Nadu representatives cited a petition by the state government in the Supreme Court seeking rejection of a Detailed Project Report for the Mekedatu dam proposal.

This plea is expected to be taken up for hearing soon by the apex court and hence Mekedatu issue should not be deliberated, the TN officials told the meet.

Also, Tamil Nadu said any discussion on Mekedatu could take place only if all the stakeholders, -Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry- concurred and subsequently, a discussion on Mekedatu was “avoided,” the government said.

It was argued in the meet that water release as per stipulations should be done by Karnataka so as to ensure that the short term Kuruvai crop harvest is not affected and also to facilitate crop cultivation for long term Samba crop in Cauvery Delta region of Tamil Nadu.

Quoting CWMA chief S K Haldar”s interaction with journalists in Delhi, the TN government said Karnataka has agreed to release water by the end of September for Tamil Nadu.

Haldar told reporters that Karnataka dams should have about 209 TMC water as of now but it has only got 156 TMC water, which is a deficit of 25 per cent. Karnataka said it could not release water according to norms to TN in view of such a scenario.

As regards a discussion on Mekedatu dam proposal in the authority’s meet, concurrence of all lower riparian states (TN, Kerala and union territory of Puducherry) is necessary, Haldar was quoted as saying by the government.