Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s help to end Karnataka’s plans to build a reservoir across the Cauvery. In a letter, Palaniswami requested the Prime Minister to instruct the Union Water Resources Ministry to direct the Central Water Commission to stop any further processing of a feasibility report submitted by Karnataka. The bone of contention is a balancing reservoir and drinking water dam with an installed power generation capacity of 400 MW that has been planned by Karnataka at Mekedatu across the Cauvery. In the letter, Palaniswami said that the “unilateral action” of Karnataka “has caused great alarm and apprehension among the people of Tamil Nadu as it will affect the livelihood of lakhs of farmers who depend on Cauvery water”. He further said that the Centre should direct the CWC “not to give any consent to any projects on the river Cauvery without obtaining the prior concurrence of Tamil Nadu and other co-basin states”. Karnataka’s counsel Mohan Katarki, however said no concurrence of TN “is necessary for constructing the Mekedatu hydro-power project” as the construction site was within Karnataka.
