Intelligence Bureau wants Kerala cops out of Mullaperiyar dam

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The intelligence bureau (IB) of the Union home ministry has recommended replacing Kerala police with a central security force to guard the Mullaiperiyar dam, a bone of contention between Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

As early as 2006, the home ministry suggested in a preliminary report that a central paramilitary force — CRPF or CISF — be deployed at the dam in dispute.

“Being an important project, it could be targeted for sabotage. Damage to the installation by disgruntled, ideologically subverted employees during stri-kes\agitations and or by an irate mob during civil commotion cannot be ruled out. Theft\pilferage of costly items and fire are the other potent threats,” IB said.

The dam located on the Kerala side is under the administrative control of Tamil Nadu. Declared a “prohibited place” under Official Secrets Act, 1923, the reservoir can be reached by boat from Thekkady or by road from Vallakadavu.

An industrial security inspection team that visited the site on November 9, 2006, identified Mullaiperiyar dam, baby dam, earthen dam and a sluice gate at Thekkady, among others, as vulnerable points.

“Entry to the dam is regulated through photo ID cards but the cards do not carry dates of issue and validity. There are no visitor passes. Vehicles are neither searched nor a vehicle register is maintained at the gate,” the team observed. It wanted movement of vehicles using an adjacent road to a quarry checked.

“TN disburses salaries to 15 Kerala policemen on duty at the dam in three shifts. But many untoward incidents, such as attacks on officials, have been reported,” says R.V.S. Vijayakumar, a retired chief engineer of PWD.

Besides a central security cover, IB wants illegal encroachments in the dam area at Thekkady removed.

Former PWD executive engineer C. Suthanthira Amalraj says, “The TN government has long back written to the Centre to provide central security, but there has been no response.”