CWMA got no power to decide on Mekedatu project, Tamil Nadu tells SC

Tamil Nadu on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court (SC) that the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) has no jurisdiction to discuss and take a decision on the Mekedatu reservoir across the Cauvery river.

The Tamil Nadu Government, in its affidavit, said that the mandate of CWMA or CWRC (Cauvery Water Regulation Committee) is only to implement the final Award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) as modified by the Supreme Court.

"Cauvery being a deficit basin, where the availability of water is limited considering new projects does not arise, more so when the Tribunal/this Court (Supreme Court) has not permitted any new projects,” Tamil Nadu said.

"If a new project is referred to CWMA and specifically requested to give its views by the Central Government / its Agencies, or some issues about these projects/schemes are raised by the other co-basin States, it would amount to exceeding its jurisdiction," Tamil Nadu said in its rejoinder affidavit to the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) under the Jal Shakti Ministry.

The CWMA, earlier, informed the Supreme Court that it has the power to take a decision for the Mekedatu project as per the modified Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal final award citing an opinion by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

Earlier, the CWMA sought Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s opinion in which he said the CWMA can discuss the Mekedatu project and give its report to the Central Water Commission.

Tamil Nadu also said that uncontrolled (Intermediate) catchment cannot be intercepted by Karnataka. Any attempt to impound the uncontrolled flows by proposing to construct a storage reservoir of capacity 67.16 TMC would be clearly in violation of the Final Award/as affirmed by the Supreme Court, it said.

Karnataka proposed to build a balancing reservoir across the Cauvery river at Mekedatu near Kanakapura to supply drinking water to Bengaluru and surrounding areas. However, Tamil Nadu has been opposing this.

Tamil Nadu argued that the CWMA did not have power to discuss the issue of projects in the Cauvery basin. However, Karnataka said that the CWMA has power to discuss and give approval for the Mekedatu project and urged the CWMA to approve the project.