Chennai: Responding to the letter of the Minister of Karnataka BS Yediyurappa who was urgent not to oppose the Mekedatu Dam project, Minister of MC K Stalin confirmed that the project opposed the interests of farmers in Tamil Nadu and asked the first to not pursue.
Stalin’s letter on Sunday was also silent at the request by Yeddiyurappa for bilateral talks about this issue – a sign that TN was not interested in the proposal for the conversation.
The view that the Mekedatu Dam will not affect the interests of Tamil Nadu cannot be agreed upon, because it will inhibit the flow of water from the catchment area under Kabini and Krishnarajasagar Dam, Stalin told Yeddiyurappa.
He said the last commandment of the Cauvery water dispute, which was later modified by the Supreme Court, clearly identified three components that contributed to the annual quantum water amount to be sent to TN.
“The proposed Mekedatu Dam will confiscate and divert the first component of an uncontrolled stream to Tamil Nadu, which comes from the downstream catchment area of downstream reservoir and water catchment area under the Dam Krishnarajaah and an uncontrolled flow of the SIMSHA sub-basin, Arkavatahy and Suvernavathy, “said.
Stalin noted that building the main reservoir in Mekedatu, which was too far from Bengaluru, to meet the requirements of the metropolis drinking water did not sound valid.
He said justification by Karnataka at the need for a reservoir with a storage capacity of 67.18TMC (thousand million cubic feet) to meet the requirements of 4.75TMC drinking water unacceptable, especially when Karnataka has a drinking infrastructure for the purposes of drinking Bengaluru.
“This will definitely endanger the availability of water to Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Stalin said the comparison of the Mekedatu project with a silhalla dam and was not true.
Yeddiyurappa has said in his letter that TN has not received approval from Karnataka for two projects to support the points that because TN will advance with these projects, it should not object to carnataka projects.
But Stalin said the last was the Hydro Power project, where water was recirculated by pumping to meet the demand for peak power.
There is no water consumption and therefore the projects will not affect the availability for irrigation purposes or drink, he said.
“I ask you to consider the facts above and the sensitivity of this problem and very urgent you not to pursue the Mekedatu project,” Stalin said in the letter.
Dam in Mekedatu will hurt Nadu Tamil Farmers: M K Stalin
