The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution against the Karnataka government’s plan to construct the Mekedatu dam on the Cauvery river, The Hindu reported.

The resolution, moved by Chief Minister Vijay, said that the House was objecting to the “unilateral attempt” by Karnataka to build the dam “without respecting” the final award given by Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in 2007 and the Supreme Court’s judgement in 2018.

The project entails building a reservoir in a deep gorge at the confluence of the river Cauvery with its tributary Arkavathi in the Ramanagara district. The project aims to provide drinking water to Bengaluru and nearby areas and also to generate 400 megawatts of power. It will cost about Rs 9,000 crore.

Tamil Nadu has claimed that it will impede the free flow of water from the Cauvery into the state.

The distribution of Cauvery water has been a long-standing dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. It dates back to two agreements in 1892 and 1924 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and the Princely State of Mysore.

The Union government set up the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in 1990, which delivered its verdict in 2007. The tribunal allocated 419 thousand million cubic feet of water per year to Tamil Nadu and 270 thousand million cubic feet of water to Karnataka.

However, this did not settle the dispute as both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka filed petitions to review the decision.

The Supreme Court in February 2018 asked the Union government to set up the Cauvery Water Management Authority within a month to implement the tribunal’s verdict.

The resolution passed on Friday said that Karnataka had neither obtained the “concurrence of the concerned basin states”, nor secured an approval from the Union government.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly also urged the Union government not to grant approvals or clearances for the project, the newspaper reported.

It said that the tribunal and the Supreme Court had observed that the river basin had a water deficit and that the available water had been apportioned among the states through which the Cauvery passes. Therefore, neither a dam can be built in the basin, nor can additional water be used by Karnataka, resolution added.

In response to the resolution, Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge on Friday said that the state would continue to pursue its interests through legal means, ANI reported.

The Tamil Nadu government “is free to pass whatever resolution they want”, Kharge said, adding that “it is not our business”.

“...We are not trying to take away anybody’s rights...” he told reporters. “Whatever excess is flowing, that is all we are trying to harness for our people.”

The Congress is in power in Karnataka. It is part of the ruling coalition in Tamil Nadu.

In November, the Supreme Court declined to hear the Tamil Nadu government’s plea against Karnataka’s plan to construct the dam. The bench had said that the detailed project report was still under consideration by experts in the Cauvery Water Management Authority and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee.

The court said the process was taking place after considering objections raised by Tamil Nadu and therefore, its petition was “premature”.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.