From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, May 27: Karnataka will mount a legal challenge against the National Green Tribunal (NGT)'s decision to constitute a committee to study the Mekedatu irrigation cum power generation project on the run off on inter-State Cauvery river.

"We have taken a decision to challenge the NGT’s order,’’ said state home and law minister Basavaraj Bommai after a meeting with legal and irrigation experts held under the chairmanship of chief minister B S Yediyurappa on Thursday.

The Mekedatu project is within Karnataka’s purview and the NGT’s unilateral decision without hearing the other parties was not legally correct, Bommai said.

Basavaraj Bommai (file photo)

Bommai said the NGT has taken its unilateral decision based on a news report published in a Tamil Nadu daily about the road being constructed in the Mekedatu project area. "We will also appeal to the NGT to review its decision and hear the arguments from Karnataka,’’ he said.

State chief secretary, P Ravikumar and advocate general, Prabhulinga Navadgi as well as water resources department additional chief secretary, Rakesh Singh participated in the meeting.