Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan flayed Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai for terming as a ‘political stunt’ Chief Minister M K Stalin urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the Jal Shakthi Ministry to advise the Chairman of the Cauvery Water Management Authority +CWMA) to desist from discussing the Mekedatu dam project at its 16th meeting on June 17.

Terming the Mekedatu issue as basic livelihood problem of the farmers of Tamil Nadu, the Minister in a statement here said, Bommai’s remarks demeaning Stalin’s letter to the Prime Minister on the issue was not acceptable.

The TN government has no intention or compulsion to politicise the issue and demeaning Stalin’s letter to Modi as political stunt is not acceptable, he said.

He also termed as strange Bommai’s remarks that TN had not participated in any of the 15 meetings of CWMA held so far. This clearly showed that the Karnataka government officials had not apprised their Chief Minister with correct facts and that details of TN’s participation has been recorded in the CWMA meetings.

Pointing out that Karnataka’s decision to construct a big dam to store 67.6 tmcft of water to meet the needs of 4.75 tmc ft was violation of the Supreme Court orders, Duraimurugan said the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal had fixed the quantum of water and it was upheld by the Apex Court.