State MPs urge PM to Hogenakal project

The MPs, who met Singh at his Parliament House office for a brief period, sought his intervention to resolve the dispute on Hogenakal project situated on a site bordering the two states.  

Speaking to newsmen after the meeting, Congress Rajya Sabha member B K Hariprasad said that the Prime Minister gave a patient hearing and promised to attend to the issue after getting information from the ministry concerned.

In the memorandum, the MPs said the Centre should take steps to conduct joint survey for demarcating the boundary line between the two States. Till the issue was resolved, the Ministry of Water Resources should ensure that all clearance given for the project should be kept in abeyance.

The controversy of Hogenakal drinking water project triggered after the Tamil Nadu Government submitted the detailed project report to the Centre to utilise water up to 2.1 tmc ft against the originally agreed 1.4 tmc ft of water.

Although the Tamil Nadu Government claimed that it would not draw more than 1.4 tmc ft of water, the Karnataka Government raised objection to it and said the neighbouring state changed the originally agreed project in an attempt to draw more water in future.  

The MPs also brought to the Prime Minister’s notice about Tamil Nadu Government’s opposition to state's Shivanasamudram run-off-the river hydel plant proposed across Cauvery river at Mekedatu.

The meeting, in which 18 MPs from both Congress and BJP participated, included former Chief Minister Dharam Singh, Dhruvanarayan, A H Vishwanath, D B Chandre Gowda, Ananth Kumar, Ramesh Jigajinagi, Prahlad Joshi, Prabhakar Kore, G S Basavaraj and Shivkumar Udasi.