Tamil Nadu has revived its political and legal opposition to the proposed Mekedatu dam after Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said that no one could stop Karnataka from building the project, prompting DMK president M K Stalin to call for an all-party meeting in the state.
Stalin wrote to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay seeking the meeting, saying the Cauvery was closely linked to the lives of people in the state and the livelihoods of delta farmers. He urged the government not to remain silent and called for unity among Tamil Nadu’s political parties in opposing the dam.
Stalin proposed that resolutions adopted at the proposed all-party meeting, along with the anti-Mekedatu resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly in June, be submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a joint delegation of legislative party leaders and Members of Parliament. He also reiterated Tamil Nadu’s position that the Cauvery dispute should be pursued through legal channels rather than bilateral negotiations with Karnataka.
The latest developments follow Shivakumar’s reported statement that Karnataka would pursue the necessary clearances for the project. Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Manickam Tagore criticised Shivakumar, who is from the Congress, and accused the Union government of bias. Tagore said seeking clearances for the dam at a meeting in Mysuru attended by the Prime Minister went against the Supreme Court’s ruling and the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.
Tagore also referred to Shivakumar’s claim that the Supreme Court had ruled in Karnataka’s favour on construction of the Mekedatu dam. According to Tagore, Tamil Nadu has already approached the Supreme Court over the inter-state dispute, and Shivakumar’s remarks undermined the state’s interests and violated legal decisions secured after decades of litigation.
The dispute centres on Karnataka’s proposed 67.15 thousand million cubic feet dam at Mekedatu, located around four kilometres upstream of the Biligundlu water gauge station on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border. Biligundlu is the point identified in the report for measuring water flows into Tamil Nadu.
Tagore said Tamil Nadu’s legal entitlement under the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s order and the Supreme Court’s ruling totalled 177.25 TMC. He attributed 60 TMC of that entitlement to the Kabini dam, 52 TMC to the Krishnaraja Sagar dam and 80 TMC to Karnataka’s unregulated catchment areas at Biligundlu.
He further alleged that Karnataka rarely released the mandated quantity of water on schedule, forcing Tamil Nadu to use various legal and political measures to secure its share. Tamil Nadu has consistently opposed the Mekedatu project, arguing that a dam located so close to the border could affect the downstream flow relied upon by the Cauvery delta.
The immediate next step sought by Stalin is the convening of the all-party meeting. The resolutions from that meeting, if adopted, are expected to form part of a proposed joint delegation’s representation to the Prime Minister, while Tamil Nadu’s legal challenge remains central to the state’s response.
