The Supreme Court-appointed empowered committee on the controversial Mullaperiyar dam on Tuesday refused to entertain Kerala’s plea to lower the reservoir’s water level from 136 feet to 120 feet. The five-member panel, headed by former Chief Justice of India A.S. Anand, also asked the Geological Survey of India (GSI) to submit a report on urgent basis on the recent tremors in the area. The committee declined Kerala’s request in view of the status quo order of the SC.
The committee discussed the report submitted on Monday by its two technical experts, who recently inspected the dam, along with various other study reports on the safety of the century-old structure. It also accepted a plea by the Kerala officials complaining about the experts’ “prejudicial attitude” against the state during their inspection process.
The report submitted by the technical experts, Dr C.D. Thatte and D.K. Mehta, has reportedly said that no cracks had been found in the dam after the recent tremors. Sources said that the report was critical of the Tamil Nadu government for not conducting the maintenance work as directed by the SC and not carrying out the safety tests recommended by the panel.
The committee, in response to a memorandum of Kerala MPs forwarded by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to it, stated that the panel couldn’t interfere in the dam-row between the two states at the present juncture as it is in the process of preparing a final report on the issue to be submitted to the SC. It rejected Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s memorandum against formulating a contingency plan for the dam by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) as requested by Kerala. The committee said the decision in this regard would be taken by the PM.
The panel is yet to get another study report on the safety of the dam, which it expects to receive shortly. The governments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are yet to submit their responses to the panel on the ownership, maintenance and control aspects of the new dam proposed by Kerala.
With the arguments of both Tamil Nadu and Kerala closed on Monday, the committee is expected to submit its final report to the apex court ahead of the stipulated time of February 29. Before concluding its report, the committee will once again hold an internal meeting on January 24.