Duraimurugan hits back at K’taka CM over Mekedatu row

Replying to the statement of Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan on Wednesday asked Bommai not to proceed with the construction of a dam at Mekedatu before the Supreme Court clears the deck.

“At a time when the Mekedatu issue is pending in the Supreme Court, taking efforts to construct Mekedatu is illegal. I urge the Karnataka Chief Minister not to attempt the construction of the dam before the Supreme Court provides the solution,” said Duraimurugan, in a statement.

Taking exception to the comments of Bommai, Duraimurugan said that officials have given misleading information to Bommai and the presence of Tamil Nadu officials can be verified with the records available with the CWMA. Duraimurugan further said that livelihood of several farmers is dependent on Cauvery River and there is no need for the state to politicise the issue.

Interacting with reporters after a Dravida model meeting held in Vellore he said it was regrettable and also condemnable that Bommai claimed that TN Chief Minister MK Stalin writing to PM Narendra Modi was a political stunt. “I think he does not fully understand the Cauvery issue,” he added. It is Bommai who is playing a political stunt as elections are due in that state, he added.

“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.

Meanwhile, replying to Governor RN Ravi’s speech on Sanatana Dharma in Tamil Nadu, Duraimurugan said that no body, not even the Governor will be able to revive Sanatana Dharma in Tamil Nadu as it was this soil which sounded the death knell for it.