Project was not placed before Cauvery tribunal, Eshwarappa tells Assembly Project to use 1.4 tmcft to supply drinking water Karnataka has asked for details about the project Bangalore: Karnataka Minister for Energy K.S. Eshwarappa on Monday told the Legislative Assembly that the permission given by the Union Ministry of Water Resources to Tamil Nadu for the Hogenakkal drinking water supply project utilising 1.4 tmcft could not be considered valid as Tamil Nadu had not placed the project before the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. Mr. Eshwarappa was replying to Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli, T.B. Jayachandra and Dhruvanarayana (all Congress) during Question Hour. The Minister said that the Karnataka Chief Secretary, in a letter to his Tamil Nadu counterpart on March 27 objecting to the project, had told him that work on it should not be started before discussing the matter with Karnataka. Tamil Nadu was requested to refrain from going ahead with the project till the matter was sorted out. The Minister said that the Hogenakkal hydel power project and other hydroelectric projects across the Cauvery were to be taken up by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC). The State government had discussed the matter with the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government. As no agreement could be reached, the projects had not been taken up by the NHPC, he said. In a letter on September 21, 1998, the Union government informed Tamil Nadu that it had no objection to the annual allocation of 1.4 tmcft of water from the Cauvery for the Hogenakkal project. This quantity of water could be derived from the share allocated to it by the tribunal in its interim order or in its final order or award or any other order, subject to the terms and conditions therein.