In a special session, the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution on Thursday seeking to restrain Karnataka’s plans to construct a dam across river Cauvery at Mekedatu. The resolution which was passed unopposed condemned Central Water Commission (CWC) for granting the go-ahead to the government of Karnataka to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Mekedatu project.
Mentioning that the state Assembly had, on two earlier occasions, passed unanimous resolutions against the construction of a dam in Mekedatu, the resolution stated that the proposal is against the Supreme Court’s order that upper riparian state must not implement any project without the consent of lower riparian states. The ruling AIADMK, the DMK and its allies and AMMK came together in solidarity to pass this resolution.
“This august House urges the (Karnataka) Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India to immediately order the Central Water Commission to withdraw the permission given to Karnataka for preparing the Detailed Project Report,” read the resolution.
The resolution also said that this proposal was against the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court’s February order and urged the Government of India to direct the Karnataka government to not undertake any project in Mekedatu or in any other place in the Cauvery basin without the consent of Tamil Nadu.
Speaking to reporters after the special session of the Assembly, Leader of the Opposition and DMK President MK Stalin said that the resolution was passed unanimously, keeping aside politics between the parties. “As far as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is concerned, beyond politics and differences in party ideologies, we supported the resolution since the issue relates to the livelihood of the people of Tamil Nadu. In this time, we also requested that the resolution condemns the central government too since as of now, the resolution seeks the interference of the Centre. I expressed my opinion that if the resolution had been a full-fledged condemnation, it would be much more effective, but it was not accepted,” he said.
The move to pass a resolution comes after the CWC gave permission to the government of Karnataka to prepare a DPR to construct a dam across river Cauvery in Mekedatu on November 22. On Wednesday, the Tamil Nadu government filed a contempt plea in the Supreme Court, saying that the decision of Karnataka to build a dam across Cauvery was against the final order of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal which said that no upper riparian state shall build a new dam on the river without the consent of lower riparian states, which was upheld by the apex court. Tamil Nadu, in its contempt petition, sought the interference of the court in the matter and restrain Karnataka from proceeding with the assessment.