Hartal over Mullaperiyar affects life in four Kerala districts

Nov 29, 2011 |

Kochi

Tags:

Mullaperiyar

Normal life was affected on Tuesday in Kerala's Idukki, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Alappuzha districts due to the 12-hour hartal call given by various political parties seeking immediate resolution of the Mullaperiyar Dam dispute.

Shops have downed shutters, Kerala Road Transport Corporation buses are not operating services and private buses are also off the roads in most of the places, initial reports from the four districts said.

The dawn to dusk hartal, which began at 6 AM this morning, has been called by BJP and the Kerala Congress Mani and Kerala Congress Jacob factions, both constituents of the ruling UDF.

In Kochi, only a few private vehicles are plying. Educational institutions have declared a holiday in view of the hartal. In Idukki district, this is second consecutive day that the hartal is on. A dawn-to-dusk hartal was observed yesterday after it was called by the Congress-led UDF and CPI(M) led Opposition LDF.
Vehicles of Sabarimala pilgrims, however, are being allowed to pass through Idukki and other districts. Kerala has been pressing for immediate central intervention to persuade Tamil Nadu to agree to the proposal of a new dam at Mullaperiyar holding that the present 116-year-old structure posed a threat to nearly three million people.

However, holding a contradictory view, Tamil Nadu has opposed construction of a new dam, asserting that the present reservoir "is as safe and good as new" and accused Kerala of whipping up fear psychosis.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/110077" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-275c6b34f18306e50cfcc5a985d12a28" value="form-275c6b34f18306e50cfcc5a985d12a28" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="94039473" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>