Karunanidhi threatens to withdraw from Mullaperiyar dam talks
Nov 24, 2006 - 12:10:59 AM
, Reviewed by: Priya Saxena
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He said Kerala's move was not in order, 'when the Supreme Court of India itself has categorically observed that the dam is safe to store water up to 142 feet level in their judgement of Feb 27'.
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By Indo Asian News Service,
[RxPG] New Delhi, Nov 23 - Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Thursday threatened to withdraw from the Nov 29 talks with Kerala over the Mullaperiyar dam and again move the Supreme Court to resolve the issue.
Expressing his 'astonishment' over the Kerala government's move to send naval officers to check the safety of the 111-year-old dam, Karunanidhi wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance - chairperson Sonia Gandhi that Kerala had not taken permission from his government.
'It is astonishing to note that in a dam owned and maintained by the government of Tamil Nadu, the government of Kerala has taken an unilateral action to deliberately interfere with the safety of the dam without taking any permission from the government of Tamil Nadu,' Karunanidhi wrote.
Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been at loggerheads over the dam built under an agreement signed in 1886 between the then Maharaja of Travancore and the British administration. It granted the then Madras Presidency the right to construct and maintain the dam and divert the water to irrigate arid lands in Madurai region.
Thus, while the dam is located in Kerala, it serves Tamil Nadu. In recent years, Tamil Nadu has demanded that the storage capacity of the dam be raised to meet the increasing demand of water for irrigation from 136 feet to 142 feet.
Kerala, however, says it would not be safe to do so as the structure was more than a century old.
After Tamil Nadu secured a Supreme Court order this year permitting the water level to be raised from 136 feet to 142 feet, the Kerala government responded with an amendment to a bill passed earlier saying the water level must not be raised under any circumstance.
The chief of the DMK party, a key ally of the UPA at the centre, asked the central government to 'step in' to stop the 'unlawful activities' of his neighbouring state.
According to him the 'intimidating and precipitating' action of the Kerala government on the eve of talks - was 'totally unwarranted and uncalled for'.
'If the government of Kerala continues to indulge in such unfair and provocative actions, it is not possible for the government of Tamil Nadu to participate in the dialogue and we may have to approach the Supreme Court directly and place all the happenings that have occurred after the orders of the court.'
He said Kerala's move was not in order, 'when the Supreme Court of India itself has categorically observed that the dam is safe to store water up to 142 feet level in their judgement of Feb 27'.
'The action of the government of Kerala in Mullaperiyar dam is an assault on the judicial process,' Karunanidhi wrote seeking instructions to the ministry of water resources and the ministry of defence to intervene in the matter.
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