Relief for K'taka: SC bins TN plea on Markandeya river

In a relief to Karnataka, the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea by Tamil Nadu to stop the construction of the mini dam across Markandeya river in Kolar district.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Vineet Saran, which had in September reserved its judgement, suggested the Tamil Nadu approached the Centre within four weeks with the plea to constitute an inter-state water dispute tribunal to address the issue.

Karnataka is building a dam across Markandeya river near Yargol village in Kolar district to provide drinking water to Kolar, Malur and Bangarpet taluks and 40 other villages. Karnataka has obtained the required permission to build the dam across Markandeya river to store 500 million cubic metres of water at a cost of Rs 240 crores.

However, objecting to the project, Tamil Nadu claimed that since Markandeya river is tributary of Pennaiyar river, any construction of the dam by Karnataka would obstruct natural flows to the downstream. Since a large number of people in Tamil Nadu depend upon Pennaiyar river water for irrigation as well as drinking purpose, the livelihood of lakhs of farmers in Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Cuddalore districts would be affected with the construction of dam, it said.

Tamil Nadu also argued that constructing reservoirs in one of the tributaries of Pennaiyar was a violation of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act.

Karnataka, on the other hand, questioned maintainability of the suit as well as the application by Tamil Nadu. It contended that about 75 to 80% of the project had been completed, it should be allowed to complete the remaining portion. Since the National Water Policy-2002 accords the highest priority to drinking water, Karnataka should be allowed to continue with the project.