Vijay asks Modi not to clear Karnataka’s Mekedatu dam without Tamil Nadu’s consent

Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging the Centre not to clear Karnataka’s proposed Mekedatu dam on the Cauvery without the consent of the States that share the river.

In his letter on Saturday, 7 November, Mr. Vijay said the project should not proceed while the matter is pending before the Supreme Court. Tamil Nadu holds that a lower riparian State’s consent is needed for any new project on a shared river.

The background

Karnataka wants to build a reservoir and hydropower project at Mekedatu, near the Tamil Nadu border, mainly to supply drinking water to Bengaluru. Tamil Nadu fears it would let Karnataka hold back water that would otherwise flow to the delta, and says it violates the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s 2007 award and the Supreme Court’s 2018 judgment on sharing the river.

This is not the first such letter. Mr. Vijay wrote to the Prime Minister in May, after Karnataka said it would submit the project’s detailed report, and again in June and July, when he asked the Centre to withdraw a Jal Shakti Ministry reply in the Rajya Sabha that said the 2018 judgment did not expressly require Karnataka to obtain the consent of lower riparian States.

The letter comes as Tamil Nadu’s 15 major reservoirs hold only about a third of their capacity and Karnataka has been asked to release far less Cauvery water than Tamil Nadu sought.

What’s next

The Centre has not responded to the latest letter. Karnataka maintains that the dam would not harm Tamil Nadu’s share of water.