National

‘Nothing can stop Hogenakkal project’

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu PWD Minister Durai Murugan has made it clear that nothing will stop his government from going ahead with the Rs.1,334-crore Hogenakkal project to supply drinking water to the fluoride-affected Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts.

Work under the project, being implemented with the assistance of the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), would continue and would be completed as per schedule.

The Minister, talking to mediapersons here on Sunday, was reacting to Karnataka Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s reported statement that Karnataka would stall the project by approaching the Centre and also write to the JBIC to stop funding. Mr. Basavaraj had even asked the Centre to convene a meeting of Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to settle the issue.

Mr. Durai Murugan said everyone had a right to say whatever they liked and he was not bound to reply to each and every statement. “Our position is clear; we will go on with the work come what may.” Tomorrow they (Karnataka) would even say that Hogenakkal belonged to them, he remarked sarcastically.

The Minister refuted AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa’s allegation that the Kerala government was going ahead with the construction of a check dam across Bhavani, a tributary of the Cauvery river, near the Coimbatore district border, and the Tamil Nadu government was doing nothing to prevent it.

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