Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the proposed Mekedatu project. In his letter,
the chief minister urged the Centre to safeguard the interests of the lower riparian states
In his letter, Vijay referred to the reply of Minister of State for Jal Shakti in the Rajya Sabha on the project to an unstarred question. In his reply, the minister said that the Supreme Court’s judgment on February 16, 2018, does not say that Karnataka should obtain the permission of the lower riparian states before building a structure near the Cauvery River.
What CM write in his letter?
“This disappointing reply from the Hon’ble Minister of State for Jal Shakti seems to have been made without taking into consideration the prevailing legal position and settled law about the consent of the lower riparian states,” the chief minister wrote.
He added, “In this context, I bring to your kind notice the decision of the Constitution Bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the Alamatti case between State of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh wherein it was ruled that the consent of the lower riparian state is necessary.
“In the case of Kerala’s Pambar Hydro-electric Project, involving only 0.1 TMC of consumptive use, it directed that Kerala and Tamil Nadu should jointly agree upon the schedule of releases so that downstream irrigation is not adversely affected. This demonstrates that the Tribunal attached paramount importance not merely to annual quantities but also to coordinated regulation of releases affecting lower riparian interests,” the chief minister added further while pointing out that the Tribunal itself laid down important guiding principles. “Tamil Nadu is therefore of the considered opinion that the proposed Mekedatu Project cannot be evaluated merely as an engineering proposal,” the CM added further in his letter.
