Tamil Nadu moves SC to restrain Karnataka on Mekedatu reservoir

Tamil Nadu has moved the Supreme Court, seeking directions restraining neighbouring Karnataka from proceeding with its plan to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for a ₹5,912-crore balancing reservoir on the Cauvery River.
Differences have erupted between the two primary river-sharing states after the Central Water Resources Commission (CWC) allowed Karnataka to draft the DPR for its 67.16 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) reservoir and 400-MW hydel power project at Mekedatu in Karnataka’s Ramanagara district.

After the CWC’s approval on November 22 for preparing the project report, Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, referring to earlier communications to him and the water resources ministry on the matter and objecting to the proposal on grounds that it would run counter to the provisions laid down in the final Supreme Court award in the Cauvery dispute.

Amid reports that Tamil Nadu was contemplating moving the Supreme Court, the state filed a Miscellaneous Application in the top court on Friday. ET has reviewed a copy of the petition.

“We have moved the court today (Friday). The case is yet to be taken up by the court,” Tamil Nadu counsel G Umapathy told ET. The petition also sought directions to the CWC to withdraw its permission to Karnataka to prepare the project report.

In its petition, Tamil Nadu argues that the proposed Mekedatu reservoir was an attempt to increase the “storage capacity and enhance its irrigation in gross violation of the decision of the Tribunal”.

The Supreme Court had delivered the final verdict in February this year on the long-standing Cauvery water sharing dispute, raising Karnataka’s share of water by 14.75 TMC, including 4.75 TMC for Bengaluru, and cutting an equivalent proportion from Tamil Nadu in view of the groundwater available in the basin.

Tamil Nadu argues that the Mekedatu idea violates a final award provision that the “upper riparian state (Karnataka) shall not take any action so as to affect the schedule deliveries of water to the lower riparian State.”

In its approval to Karnataka’s Cauvery Neeravari Nigam, the Central Water Commission, among other conditions, laid it out that the objections of Tamil Nadu “shall be taken into consideration by the Govt of Karnataka while preparing the DPR”, according to a copy of the CWC letter, accessed by ET. Another condition was that the "acceptance of the Cauvery Water Management Authority" was essential for the water resources ministry to consider the report, since the objective of the Mekedatu reservoir, as stated in its feasibility report, was to implement the Cauvery dispute final award of the Supreme Court.

Tamil Nadu’s decision to move the Supreme Court follows a meeting of opposition parties helmed by DMK president MK Stalin on the controversy. The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu now faces a passionate band of political detractors, who have announced an agitation in Tiruchi, a central district in Tamil Nadu, on December 4 demanding that the Centre direct the CWC to withdraw its approval to prepare the project report.