New Delhi, March 17 A meeting of all-party MPs from Karnataka on Tuesday decided to form a joint delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding long-standing water and irrigation projects, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said.
Shivakumar, who also holds the Water Resources portfolio, chaired the meeting here. Around 24 of Karnataka's 41 MPs attended.
However, BJP members, including former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, requested that another meeting be convened after the assembly elections in five states and a Union Territory on the issue, as the decisions could impact the states going to the polls.
"The meeting date was fixed after discussion with central ministers, before the announcement of poll dates," Shivakumar told reporters after the meeting.
Union Ministers Prahlad Joshi and V Somanna did not attend, citing parliamentary proceedings. A whip had been issued asking them to be present in the House.
"We updated the MPs on the progress made in pending irrigation projects. Some documents were shared. There was consensus to lead a joint delegation of Karnataka MPs to meet central ministers and the Prime Minister," Shivakumar said.
The delegation will meet the PM after the next meeting, to be scheduled after the state assembly polls, he added. Rajya Sabha MP Sudha Murty was also present at the meeting.
Key pending projects include the Mekedatu Project. The Supreme Court had dismissed Tamil Nadu's miscellaneous applications on November 13, 2025, leaving the decision on the project's permissibility to the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) and Central Water Commission (CWC). Forest land diversion for about 5,267 hectares and tree enumeration are currently underway.
The Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II award of December 2010 remains unnotified by the Union Government over a decade later. Two ministerial meetings called to build consensus were postponed following objections from Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
For the Upper Bhadra Project, the Union Government announced central assistance of Rs 5,300 crore in the 2023-24 Union Budget. Despite compliance with all CWC observations, funds are yet to be released after three years.
On Kalasa-Banduri Nala Projects, DPRs for the Mahadayi basin projects, critical for Hubli-Dharwad's drinking water needs, were cleared by CWC in December 2022. Forest and wildlife clearances from the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) have remained pending for two years.
Under the PMKSY-AIBP Schemes, Karnataka has submitted 153 modernisation proposals worth Rs 10,792.93 crore covering 5,88,094 hectares to the Ministry of Jal Shakti. The CWC has so far approved proposals for two clusters worth Rs 94.19 crore.
MPs who attended the meeting included Jagdish Shettar, Govinda Karajola, Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, P C Mohan, Kota Srinivas Pujari, Yaduveer, Tukaram, Sagar Khandre, Shreyas Patel, Prabha Mallikarjuna, Kumar Naik and Rajasekhara Hitnal, among others.
