Take up Mekedatu on priority: Capt. Raja Rao

Irrigation expert Capt. S. Raja Rao has said that the government should take up Mekedatu project on a priority basis — a major demand of farmers in the south Karnataka region.

Irrigation expert Capt. S. Raja Rao has said that the government should take up Mekedatu project on a priority basis — a major demand of farmers in the south Karnataka region.

Speaking at a panel discussion on water and land at the 87th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana here, he said all statutory clearances should be obtained from the Centre for its implementation.

Capt. Raja Rao said clause XIII of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal order provided for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to build hydel projects in the common reach of the river subject to the release of water downstream, as stipulated by the tribunal. Besides, the CWDT has assessed the yield of Cauvery basin at 50% dependability as 740 thousand million cubic ft (tmcft) and has not assessed the surplus availability, he added.

He said the Supreme Court had allocated an additional 10 tmcft for irrigation and 4.75 tmcft for drinking purposes — in addition to 270 tmcft provided in the final order — for Bengaluru city for which storage was planned and proposed at Mekedatu. “By opposing Mekedatu, Tamil Nadu was trying to prevent Karnataka from using surplus flow in the Cauvery,” he added.

Delving on agriculture in the region, Capt. Raja Rao said the CWDT had restricted sugarcane cultivation in the Krishnaraja Sagar command area to only 40,000 acres and provided only 13.04 tmcft for it. But the area of sugarcane cultivated was more than the limit prescribed by the CWDT. To sustain the present extent of sugarcane cultivation an additional 40 to 50 tmcft of water was required and this reality had to be understood by political leaders and farmers, said Capt. Raja Rao.

In a paper submitted on the subject, he called for diverting Kongana Hole and Kokkattu Hole to Lakshman Tirtha valley, harnessing replenishable groundwater from the water spread area of all reservoirs and from the command area of major irrigation projects in the basin.