Mullaperiyar row: Kerala ministers to meet PM

Nov 29, 2011 |

Thiruvananthapuram

Tags:

State and union ministers from Kerala will meet the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Tuesday seeking his urgent intervention to enable the construction of a new dam in Mullaperiyar.

A delegation led by the water resources minister Mr P.J. Joseph set the stage for the crucial interaction by meeting the union defence minister Mr. A.K Antony and the union water resources minister Mr. Pawan Kumar Bansal on Monday.

The ministers also met legal luminaries including Mr Harish Salve who reportedly advised that the state should pass a resolution in the Assembly requesting Parliament to enact a law to set up a new dam if there was imminent threat of the 100-year-old structure collapsing.

The MPs from Kerala, Mr. P.T. Thomas (Idukki), Mr. Anto Antony (Pathanamthitta) and Mr. Jose K. Mani (Kottayam) also conducted a hunger strike in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament seeking the Centre's intervention.

Back home, the finance minister Mr K.M. Mani said that Kerala had the right to initiate action to build a dam on its soil without waiting for a nod from other states.

The ruling United Democratic Front and the opposition Left Democratic Front also joined hands to conduct a protest hartal in Idukki.

Protesters blocked roads linking Kerala and Tamil Nadu at Kumily and other entry points, though no violence was reported from anywhere.

Sabarimala pilgrims were not obstructed. Meanwhile, the water level in the dam rose to 136.4 feet following heavy rainfall on Sunday. However, there were no rains on Monday and the water level is likely to come down.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/110003" 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-37ab71834f4193549624df2deba719e7" value="form-37ab71834f4193549624df2deba719e7" /> <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="81067391" /> <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>