CPI-M slams Centre over Mekedatu stand, plans Aug 2 protest

Chennai: The CPI-M's Tamil Nadu unit on Wednesday slammed the Centre over a Union minister's statement in the Rajya Sabha that Karnataka does not require riparian states' consent to construct the Mekedatu dam, calling it a 'betrayal of the state's agricultural interests.'

The party demanded its immediate retraction and also announced a massive protest across the Cauvery Delta districts on August 2. "We strongly condemn the minister's statement. The reply has sent shockwaves among farmers and the public across Tamil Nadu," CPI-M state secretary P Shanmugam said. He went on to add that it is an internationally accepted norm that upper-riparian states cannot unilaterally take decisions on disputes involving inter-state rivers and said the Union minister who made the statement was not unaware of this principle. Further, he claimed that the Karnataka government has never released Tamil Nadu's monthly quota of water as stipulated by the Cauvery Tribunal's decision and the Supreme Court's final verdict on the inter-state river dispute. "Instead, it has consistently treated Tamil Nadu merely as a drainage basin to flush out excess water during times of torrential downpour," Shanmugam said. Under these circumstances, the CPI-M leader said constructing the Mekedatu dam poses an undeniable risk of denying Tamil Nadu its rightful water share, threatening to turn the region into a desert, severely affecting drinking water supply and irrigation across the state.

In Karnataka, BJP state unit president BY Vijayendra announced that the party would stage a protest in Mandya on July 31 against the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.