Not a single brick at Mekedatu without TN's consent, says TNCC

CHENNAI: Declaring an unyielding stand on the Cauvery water dispute, the TNCC on Thursday (July 2) warned it would not allow even a single brick to be laid for the Mekedatu dam project by Karnataka without Tamil Nadu's explicit consent.

Newly appointed TNCC President B Manickam Tagore MP chaired a meeting of district Congress committee presidents in the city where the party said it was prepared to launch intense state-wide agitations to guard the rights of the Cauvery delta farmers.

One of the resolutions in the meeting said that the committee strongly condemned the Karnataka government's persistent efforts to build a reservoir across the Cauvery River at Mekedatu.

The Congress' Tamil Nadu unit reiterated that Karnataka's actions fly in the face of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's final verdict and the 2018 Supreme Court judgment, characterising the ongoing project preparations as a clear contempt of court.

The resolution stated that the party will spearhead public and political protests to counter any unilateral moves by Karnataka, a Congress-ruled state, ensuring the agricultural lifeline of Tamil Nadu's Cauvery Delta is protected at all costs.

Karnataka's move to construct a balancing reservoir on river Cauvery at Mekedatu to meet drinking water requirements and hydel power generation has been met with stiff resistance from Tamil Nadu, which contends its interests will be harmed if the project took shape.

Turning its attention to the local administration, the TNCC committee passed a resolution praising the newly formed Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) coalition government, led Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, which is completing its first two months in office.

The party lauded Vijay's political clarity, pointing out that while his party required 10 additional seats to form a majority and could have easily aligned with the AIADMK, he deliberately chose to reject them due to the AIADMK's alliance with the BJP. Instead, to preserve secularism, he built a coalition with secular democratic forces-- the Congress, VCK, IUML, and Left parties.