TN puts on hold Hogenakkal after Karnataka protests

Karnataka was fine with the project in 1998 when it was approved by the Centre.

Tamil Nadu today put on hold the Hogenakkal Integrated Drinking Water Project, ending a week-long standoff between the state and its neighbour Karnataka over the issue, which sparked violence in both the states.

In a statement, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said that his government would "wait" till a popular government was installed in Karnataka after the May assembly polls and hoped that the new ministry would abide by the 1998 agreement to implement the water project.

The Rs 1,334 crore project, for which Karunanidhi laid the foundation stone in February, triggered a political storm in Karnakata with pro-Kannada groups and political parties resorting to protests, objecting to its implementation. The project envisages supply of Cauvery water to fluorosis affected Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts of Tamil Nadu.

While Karunanidhi's climbdown is seen as an apparent bid to help his ally Congress in Karnataka before the polls, as the scheme has snowballed into a major election issue, the flare up in Karnataka also is seen as a pre-election stunt.

For, Karnataka had not expressed even a murmur of protest when the project was initially approved by the Centre in 1998. In fact Karnataka's silence then was seen as a goodwill gesture on its part in reciprocation for a similar silence by Tamil Nadu when the Centre approved the Bangalore water supply project in 1997, that was to use the 'disputed' waters of Cauvery.

According to sources in the Union Ministry of Water Resources, the Bangalore project was approved in 1997, when H D Deve Gowda was the Prime Minister.

"Both the States had sent their chief secretaries for discussions before the Ministry of Water Resources was to give a formal approval for these projects," sources in the ministry said.

Hogenakkal is supposed to draw only 1.4 TMC of water from Cauvery, which is quite less as compared to the Bangalore water project that draws about 8 TMCs of water from the river.

According to official estimates, Hogenakkal would actually draw only about 0.28 TFC of water as 80 per cent of the supply water is naturally recycled to the basin of the source river.

The pm has been directly handling the crisis in the southern States after Union Transport Minister T Balu and the Karnataka governor met him with their respective stands over Hoggenakkal on March 3.

Interestingly, the Bangalore water supply scheme is already operational while Tamil Nadu project is yet to take off.