Mekedatu dam issue: EPS lashes out at Congress, calls Stalin 'puppet CM'

Chennai, July 2 AIADMK General Secretary K. Palaniswami on Sunday lashed out against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and the Congress government in Karnataka in the Mekedatu dam issue.

Palaniswami, in a statement, said that the Stalin government failed to take up the issue of the Karnataka government taking up the construction of Mekedatu dam across Cauvery river.

Mekedatu is a drinking water and power project which was proposed by Karnataka and it would lead to building a balancing reservoir in Kanakapura in the state's Ramanagar district.

Tamil Nadu is opposed to the construction of the dam across the Cauvery river in Karnataka that would affect the flow of river to it.

As per the Cauvery water agreement also, constructing a dam across the Cauvery involves having detailed and threadbare discussions with the affected states. The project is aimed at ensuring drinking water supply to Bengaluru and adjacent areas and the total cost of the project is around Rs 9,000 crore.

Palaniswami, who is also the Leader of Opposition, lashed out at Stalin and said that he was a ‘Puppet’ Chief Minister who did not safeguard the interests of the people of Tamil Nadu.

He blamed him for not properly opposing the statement of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister, D.K. Shivakumar who had announced the construction of Mekedatu dam.

Congress leaders in Karnataka, including Chief Minister Siddaramiah and Shivakumar, had conducted protest marches across the state for the construction of Mekedatu dam while they were in the opposition.

Palaniswami, who is a former Chief Minister, said that when his government was in power, the Mekedatu dam issue was never discussed in the Cauvery Management Authority (CMA) meeting.

He said that immediately after the Congress government assumed office in Karnataka, Shivakumar had raised the issue of constructing Mekedatu dam and had even asked the officials to commence moving papers regarding the same.

Shivakumar has now taken up the matter with the Central government and had even written a letter to Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Palaniswami said, adding that if the DMK government led by Stalin had given a befitting reply to Shivakumar, immediately after he raised the issue, the situation would not reached the stage wherein he would have approached the Union government.

The former Chief Minister slammed Stalin and said that he should meet the Prime Minister with all the MPs from the state to prevent Karnataka from going ahead with the Mekedatu dam plan.

He also claimed that whenever DMK was in power, the state’s interests were ceded.

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