The Karnataka unit of the Congress on Sunday resumed the Mekedatu march or ‘walk for water’ which was halted on January 13 this year following a surge in Covid cases amid the third wave of the pandemic.
The march will begin from Ramanagara on Sunday and will end at the National College grounds in Bengaluru, covering a distance of 50 km in five days. Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumarformer chief minister SiddaramaiahAll India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Randeep Surjewala and several other leaders will take part. During the march in January, multiple cases were filed against party leaders, including Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah.
Hundreds of Congress activists take part in a public meeting organized as part of the Mekedatu march
The march had been launched seeking the implementation of a project to build a reservoir on the Cauvery river at Mekedatu near the Tamil Nadu border. The proposed reservoir, which aims to supply drinking water to Bengaluru and surrounding regions, has been challenged in the Supreme Court by Tamil Nadu on the ground that it would eat into the state’s share of Cauvery water as adjudicated by the court in 2018.
Congress leaders DK Shivakumar, Siddaramaiah and Randeep Surjewala, along with party workers, take part in the Mekedatu march on Sunday
Proposed by Karnataka, the project envisages a reservoir district near Ontigondlu about 1.5 km from Mekedatu (which literally means goat’s leap) in Ramanagara of south Karnataka at the confluence of the Cauvery and Arkavathi rivers. It is four km from the Tamil Nadu border and 100 km from Bengaluru.
In 2013, the Congress government in Karnataka headed by Siddaramaiah prepared a feasibility report for the reservoir project with a storage capacity of 67.16 thousand million cubic feet (TMCF) of water that would aim to supply 4.75 TMCF to Bengaluru and its surrounding areas, besides generating 400 MW of hydroelectric power. The project was estimated to cost Rs 5,000 crore at the time. It was proposed to be built across an area of 5,252 hectares, including 1,869 hectares of reserve forest land.
The project will need multiple clearances from the Center and courts as it involves the Cauvery water sharing dispute.
With a year to go for the Assembly elections, the protest by the state Congress is being seen as an effort to attract voters in south Karnataka through the sensitive issue. The Congress is hoping to displace the JD(S) as the most influential party in the Vokkaliga heartland. The two parties have been vying for the upper hand in the region which has 80 of the state’s 224 Assembly seats. The ruling BJP‘s presence here is minor.
The Meketadu march or ‘walk for water’ is the brainchild of DK Shivakumar who is seen as an aspirant to the post of Chief Minister. The march sought to build a narrative that the BJP governments, both in the state and at the Centre, are not in a position to implement the project.
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