K'taka Gets Legal Green Light for New Dam.

Karnataka can legitimately build a reservoir at Mekedatu, legal experts representing the State in the Supreme Court told Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recently.

Their advice comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a delegation led by Siddaramaiah that the Centre had no intentions of forming a Cauvery Water Management Board (CWMB).

Senior counsel Fali S Nariman and other members of the legal team, who have been in Karnataka this past week talking to officials in the Water Resources Department, met Siddaramaiah recently.

Mekedatu (Kannada for 'Goat's Crossing’) is on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, about an hour’s drive from Bangalore.

The proposed reservoir can be used for hydel power generation and storing water after Tamil Nadu's share of 190 tmc ft per year, as stipulated by the final award of the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal, is released.

'In the final award, there is no impediment to construction of a dam for generating hydel power. But the state cannot store water unless it gives Tamil Nadu its share,' a senior advocate on the team, headed by Nariman, told Express.

The State, however, has to follow certain legal procedures before initiating work onthe reservoir.

'All the tribunal says is that Karnataka should release Tamil Nadu’s quota of 190 tmc ft. Before starting the project, Karnataka has to inform the Supreme Court as well as the Central Water Commission,' he said.

The State, which has four major reservoirs in the Cauvery basin including Krishna Raja Sagar, can store a maximum of 104 tmc ft.

In good years, after releasing Tamil Nadu's quota of 190 tmc ft, the State has let go of excess water for want of storage.


THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS