The State government is confident that the Mekedatu irrigation and hydro power project, will be approved in the next meeting of the Cauvery water disputes tribunal, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said in Hubballi on March 6.
“We are confident of taking up the project once the tribunal clears it. It has been discussed twice in the tribunal meetings and we have got a very good response from the parties present there. We are sure it will be approved in the next meeting. That we have set aside ₹1,000 crore for the project, shows that we are confident about it,’’ he said.
He was speaking to journalists after laying the foundation stone for various projects in the APMC yard in Amargol village.
He denied claims by some Congress leaders that the Padayatra to Mekedatu had forced the State government to set aside money for the project. “Mekedatu is an old project. Its plans were prepared by the Karnataka Power corporation in 1996. We have set aside money for the project as we want to go ahead with it as soon as possible, and not because of any other reason,’’ he said.
He claimed that there were no legal hurdles holding back the State from going ahead with the Mahadayi drinking water project. “All the hurdles have been resolved and the tribunal has distributed the shares of water among the riparian States. The three States have challenged the quota of water distributed among them. Therefore, there is no problem for us taking up works within our allotted quota. However, we need some clearances from the ministry of environment and forests. It will not be difficult to get those clearances as we will be acting within our allocation,’’ he said.
To a query on the questions raised by environmentalists and NGOs against the Mahadayi project, saying it would cause irreparable damage to the ecological balance of western ghats and the climates of Goa and Karnataka, he only said: “I know of all the challenges before us. We will handle them’’.
He said the State would seek national project status for the Krishna River valley projects. “The union government has set several criteria to consider any project as a national project. I have asked officers to work on those standards. We will take it to the union, after the technical details are worked out,’’ he said. To another question, he said that the State government would complete all projects on time and that there was no need for including all projects in the budget speech.
He said the government would focus on providing boarding facilities for labourers in APMC yards across the State.
