The two technical experts of the Supreme Court-appointed empowered committee on Mullaperiyar dam on Monday submitted their report on the safety of the controversial reservoir before the full bench of the panel.
While the report by Dr C.D. Thatte and Mr D.K. Mehta, the experts who inspected the dam on December 24, is yet to be deliberated upon by the panel, sources indicated that they have “not found any cracks in the dam” as alleged by the Kerala government. The committee, headed by former chief justice of India Justice A.S. Anand is expected to discuss the report during its internal meeting on Tuesday.
To a specific question by the panel during the course of Monday’s arguments as to whether the dam developed any crack due to the recent tremors, Kerala’s counsel Rajeev Dhawan clarified that the state had only said the century-old dam existed in a seismic-prone area and was under threat due to lack of proper safety mechanism.
Earlier in the day, the Kerala government had filed a complaint before the panel alleging that the two experts were “unfair and highly prejudicial to the interests of the state” during the inspection process. The Kerala government alleged that Dr Thatte and Mr Mehta had “overstepped their jurisdiction” during their visit to the dam site by directing the Tamil Nadu government to carry out extensive repair and strengthening measures, which was against the SC’s status quo order on any such work.
Kerala also alleged that the inspecting experts had asked Kreala’s chief engineer P. Lathika “not to talk and keep quiet,” when she tried to explain certain things on the issue. The state government also objected to the “closed door meeting” by Dr Thatte with a team of Tamil Nadu engineers in his room in Aranya Nivas.
On Monday, both Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments argued their cases before the panel over the dam’s safety. While Kerala argued for building a new dam at Mullaperiyar, Tamil Nadu objected to it saying the existing structure was as safe as a new one.
The panel, examining Kerala’s detailed project report on the proposed dam, has asked both the parties to file their respective views by Friday on the three aspects of the new dam namely ownership, maintenance and regulation of water, in case of the panel accepting Kerala’s plea to build a new dam at Mullaperiyar.