Chennai: Tamilnadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today urged the Central government to take rehabilitation and rejuvenation of river Cauvery as a national project. He also pressed for linking Godavari and Cauvery.
Palaniswami placed the above requests during his meeting with Union Minister for Jal Shakthi, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, at the Secretariat in Chennai today.
“As you are well aware, Tamilnadu is a water deficient State which has no perennial river and the State has to fully depend upon the monsoon. Therefore, I have taken up a number of initiatives to bring water security to the State by launching many water conservation and augmentation programmes like Kudimaramath scheme, which is a community participatory water body improvement scheme. Six thousand two hundred and seventy eight works have been taken up at a cost of Rupees One thousand four hundred and thirty four crore in the last four years,” he said.
“Under the State funds, a number of rivers and canals have been restored, which has resulted in increase of crop coverage in the State and achieved record paddy procurement in the current year,” he added.
On Cauvery rejuvenation, he said, “Cauvery is the life line of Tamilnadu,Ā not only for agriculture, but also for drinking water. Therefore, I request that this Project may be sanctioned as a special programme like Namami Gange Project and may be taken up as a National Project.”
On Mullaiperiyar, he said, the State which owns, operates and controls the dam should have full operational control with regard to dam safety. The Government of Tamilnaduās request for corrections in the Dam Safety Bill may be includedĀ before introduction of this Bill in Lok Sabha.