Bengaluru, Nov 23 (IANS) Talking about how the Karnataka government will proceed following the Supreme Court’s order on the Mekadatu project in its favour, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who also holds the Water Resources portfolio, said that the state government will convene an all-party meeting and discuss the apex court’s order with all party MPs and leaders in Delhi.

“We will take it forward. We will have to meet our leaders in Delhi, inform all our MPs, and call an all-party meeting.”

Speaking in Bengaluru on Saturday, Shivakumar said, “I will speak to the CM. We need all MPs. We have to see whether the meeting has to be called in Bengaluru or Delhi. The Parliament session is upcoming, me and the Chief Minister will meet and decide, and we will take a call.”

He also said, “First, we will decide ourselves. If the delegation has to be taken to Delhi, it’s a matter of the state. We will invite all leaders of the BJP, such as the Leader of the Opposition R. Ashoka, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy and the leaders of JD-S. The Supreme Court has given the judgment and stated that it should be implemented expeditiously.”

“Henceforth, our state will be concerned with the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA), Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) and the Central Water Commission (CWC), and no cases are pending in the Supreme Court,” Shivakumar added.

He said, “We received the court judgment copy on the Mekedatu project today. We will implement the project in the days to come. We need to call an all-party meeting and take a delegation to Delhi. All issues need to be sorted out before the CWMA and CWC, and there is no question of going back to the court.”

Earlier, the Supreme Court rejected an application filed by the state of Tamil Nadu seeking a stay on the operation of the permission given to go ahead with the preparation of a detailed project report for the Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir-cum-Drinking Water project.

The apex court has held that no other state has a right to interfere with the decision regarding the management and use of water allotted to a particular state unless, by such act, the water allotted to that state is reduced.

The state of Tamil Nadu had approached the apex court seeking a stay on the operation of the permission given by the Central Water Commission on November 22, 2018, to Karnataka Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd., Bengaluru, an instrumentality of the state of Karnataka, to go ahead with the preparation of a detailed project report for the Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir-cum-Drinking Water project.

–IANS

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