TN water crisis looms as Andhra's Palar barrage project advances

Andhra Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy laid the foundation stone for the construction of a barrage (check dam) across the Palar river in Kuppam area of Andhra Pradesh yesterday. He said that the state government has allocated Rs.215 crores for this purpose. This is an act of deceiving Tamil Nadu.
An agreement signed in 1892 between the then Madras Province and the Mysore Rajdhani regarding the use of salt water clearly stated that no new dams could be constructed without the consent of the existing irrigation state.
But as 22 barrages have already been constructed across the Palar in the past in Andhra Pradesh, the Palar has become dry in Tamil Nadu.
In Tamil Nadu, Palar river is the life line of the people in four districts of Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Tiruvallur and Kanchipuram. 
Water supply for agriculture, drinking water and industries there is available to the people of the respective districts only through the dam.At least 80 TMC of water is produced annually in Palar. In this, the three states have agreed that Karnataka should share 20 TMC, Andhra Pradesh 20 TMC and Tamil Nadu 40 TMC.
Tamil Nadu Water Resources Minister Durai Murugan has said that if the Andhra government takes up the construction of a dam in Palar, the cases in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Tamil Nadu government will be expedited.
The Karnataka government has taken up the project to build the Meghadatu dam while Andhra government on the other hand is inclined to build a dam across Palar.
The farmers of Tamil Nadu are worried that due to this, the already dry Palar is in danger of turning into a complete desert.
The Tamil Nadu government should be cautious and stop Andhra from building the dam and assert our rights!