Chamarajnagar MP and former Union Minister V. Srinivas Prasad on Monday observed that the Mekedatu project is the only solution to the Cauvery water sharing dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Another dam for impounding surplus Cauvery water is the best possible solution to put an end to the dispute that occurs whenever the monsoon fails, he opined.
Addressing protesters after taking part in the agitation organised by the Cauvery Kriya Samithi on the Cauvery issue here, he said surplus water which Karnataka and Tamil Nadu cannot store end up in the Bay of Bengal. This, to some extent, can be prevented if the Mekedatu project was implemented. Mekedatu not just benefits Karnataka but Tamil Nadu as well. The distress during deficient rains can be overcome if we have storage, he maintained.
However, Tamil Nadu has opposed the project and the matter is in the Supreme Court. Karnataka has already put forth the facts of the project and dispelled concerns expressed over it, Mr. Prasad said, while addressing the protesters.
Lashing out at Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who is also the Minister for Water Resources, without taking his name, Mr. Prasad said the Minister has reportedly issued an unsubstantiated statement on the MPs though the leaders, cutting across party lines, had come out in support of Mekedatu project. The issue was supported when it was raised, the MP said, while perhaps referring to the padayatra over Mekedatu project.
Stating that Cauvery dispute is decades-old, he maintained that Tamil Nadu had opposed the construction of KRS dam but an agreement was reached when Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar had parleys with the British on the need for constructing the dam.
He said the dispute emerges only because there is deficient rain and dearth in storage at KRS dam. None of us come and hold protests whenever there is a good rain and the dam is full with Cauvery flowing into Tamil Nadu from the dam with no rift between the states on water sharing.
“The issue needs to be understood. In fact, before the Tribunal, the Chief Ministers of the both states used to amicably sort out issues over sharing of waters after assessing the water situation. Discussions among the CMs could sort out any issue on sharing the water between the states. But the situation changed after 1989,” he explained.
