Karnataka chief minister has stated that it was high time Tamil Nadu and Karnataka started behaving like matured and friendly neighbors instead of posing as if they were ‘India and Pakistan’.

Kumaraswamy also appealed to Tamil Nadu not to view the issue of constructing a Dam across Mekedatu across Cauvery as a ‘matter of honour’. “Karnataka had been taking up the issue of constructing the check day for the past thirty years with Tamil Nadu and it is not something which had sprung up all of a sudden,” he said.

“Issue of sharing of Cauvery river water has been a dispute which is more than 100-years old,” Kumaraswamy said. “Mekedatu Dam is planned only to preserve excess water and I earnestly want the Govt. of Tamil Nadu and its people to accord their heartfelt consent and cooperation in constructing the Dam,” he added.

“After all, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and not like India and Pakistan,” he said in a lighter vein. He also assured that water from the proposed Mekedatu Dam won’t be used for irrigation purposes. “Because of the missing Dam, most of the water released to Tamil Nadu gets mixed up with sea-water,” Kumarasamy said at Chennai Airport.