Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai has questioned the Congress party for the non-implementation of the Mekedatu project when it was in power.
“The Congress is now pressing on us to implement the Mekedatu project. It is inappropriate. It took Congress many years to prepare the Detailed Project Report on Mekedatu. Why did it take so much time? Why did it not implement it when it was in power?” he said in a statement here.
He was reacting to the decision of the Congress to organise a 100-km padayatra from Mekedatu to Bengaluru in the first week of December. The state government is fighting the issue in the court and it requires the approval of the Central Water Commission to implement the project, Bommai said.
“We are honestly working to get the nod. I am confident that it will be obtained. We will make a sincere effort to implement the project as soon as it is approved,” the CM stated.
Earlier, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President DK Shivakumar said the purpose of the padayatra is to highlight the lackadaisical attitude of the state and central governments to pursue the project.
Shivakumar said the government has the right to start the work because the previous coalition government, in which the Congress was an allied partner to the JDS, had sent the Detail Project Report (DPR) to the central government which was accepted.
He also alleged that Bommai appeared to be under political pressure and lacked the political will to implement the project.
Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in Lok Sabha had said that the DPR submitted by Karnataka to build the dam needs the approval of the Cauvery Water Management Authority.
He had also said that if Karnataka feels that it had reached a consensus, it should be brought to the notice of the Cauvery Water Management Authority and seek its permission.
Karnataka should also wait for a response from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests over approval of its DPR concerning the Mekedatu plan, he had said.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests has been notified to review Karnataka’s application and its reply is awaited, Shekhawat had said.
