Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) MP H.D. Deve Gowda said in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that the Union government was ill-treating Karnataka when it came to water supply and river-linking projects.
Speaking during the discussion on the Budget, Mr. Deve Gowda said he would restrict his speech to the issue of river-linking and the problems of drinking water supply.
“To overcome the crisis of drinking water problem, the government of Karnataka has proposed to construct Mekedatu project at the border point, with a total storage capacity of 67 TMC [thousand million cubic feet]. This is purely a drinking water supply project with incidental power generation of 650 MW with an installed capacity of 400 MW. The DPR was prepared and sent to the Government of India in early 2019. The Government of India has not yet taken a decision because you are objecting to it,” he said, referring to Tamil Nadu.
He said the linking of rivers was a major issue, and on the matter of Cauvery river the DMK and AIADMK had come together. “BJP is on the other side and the Congress is also on the other side. I am alone. What can I do?…The only thing is that the Government of India is ill-treating the State of Karnataka. We are being treated like orphans,” he said.
