Continuing her peace effort, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa released full-page ads on Friday in all big newspapers, including five Malayalam ones, explaining why and how the retrofitted Mullaperiyar dam was “safe and as good as new”.
She appealed to the people of Kerala to not succumb to divisive forces spreading falsehood that the dam was a threat to lives and properties of the people in the region.
The chief minister explained that gravity dams — and Mullaperiyar is one — used their weight to resist water pressure and other external forces such as wave pressure and earthquakes to remain stable.
Recalling how Kerala had adopted a legislation in its Assembly to thwart a Supreme Court order of February 2006 permitting Tamil Nadu to raise the water level in the dam to 142 feet, she said there was a thinking that Kerala’s campaign to decommission the dam could be inspired by land-grabbers in that state, who could be worried that their resorts and other structures built on lands leased to Tamil Nadu would submerge if the water level was raised above 136 feet.
Kerala adopts new reservoir resolution
A one-day special session of the Kerala Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on Thursday to replace the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar dam with a new one. The resolution moved by chief minister Oommen Chandy asks the Centre and the Kerala government to take steps to build a new dam.