SC relief boosts K’taka’s Mekedatu push; TN CM writes to PM

Bengaluru: Karnataka got a boost in its long-pending Mekedatu project Tuesday after the Supreme Court dismissed Tamil Nadu govt's review petition challenging the proposed balancing reservoir across Cauvery river.Hours after the order, Tamil Nadu CM C Joseph Vijay wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, objecting to the Centre and the Central Water Commission considering Karnataka's proposal without addressing TN's concerns. The review petition challenged SC's Nov 2025 judgment, which had termed TN's objections to the project as "premature" and declined to halt Karnataka's proposal at that stage.Welcoming SC's order, deputy CM and water resources minister D K Shivakumar said Karnataka was preparing to submit a revised Detailed Project Report (DPR). "SC's three-member bench has dismissed the review petition filed by Tamil Nadu on Mekedatu project. This is good news for Karnataka," Shivakumar said in Delhi. He said the apex court had already made it clear that Karnataka must ensure release of Tamil Nadu's allocated share of 177 tmcft water.The Mekedatu project, proposed near Kanakapura in Ramanagara district, now renamed Bengaluru South district, is designed as a multi-purpose reservoir aimed at supplying drinking water to Bengaluru and surrounding areas while also generating 400 MW of power.Tamil Nadu has consistently opposed the project, arguing that it could affect downstream water flow and the interests of farmers dependent on the Cauvery basin.TN CM Vijay urged the PM to direct officials to reject Karnataka's DPR, contending that it violated the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award and Supreme Court judgment. He also sought directions to Karnataka not to proceed with any new project on the river without concurrence from co-basin states."The announcement for the Bhoomi Puja of the Mekedatu reservoir across Cauvery river and utterances of Karnataka deputy CM D K Shivakumar have caused a lot of concern among the lakhs of farmers of Tamil Nadu, who depend on the Cauvery river for their livelihood," Vijay said in the letter.