Dam is safe, says Union minister

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The minister of state for science and technology and earth sciences, Mr. Ashwini Kumar, on Sunday said that the controversial Mullaperiyar dam was ‘safe’ and all steps were being taken to ensure its ‘fullest and most comprehensive security’.

The minister’s statement comes in the wake of the submission of preliminary report by the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, which has been asked to do a dam-break analysis.

The report said to have identified large tracts of populated areas that would be inundated if the dam breaks. The full report will be submitted after four months.

Mr Ashwini Kumar’s statement comes close on the heels of an even more damaging stand taken by the Union home Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram that the dam controversy was raked up with the Piravom by-election in mind. The Home Minister had to partially withdraw his statement, following protests in Kerala.

Sources said that the state government would now use the IIT (Roorkee) report to once again push its point that the dam is unsafe.

The dam-break analysis, which was overseen by the institute associate professor, Mr S. K. Mishra, began on December 29.

The study had looked at the possibilities of a breach in the dam structure and its consequences and had recommended mitigation measures.

While the Kerala government claims that the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar dam is unsafe and poses a very serious threat to the lives of the people living downstream, the Tamil Nadu government has opposed it saying the structure was as safe as a new one.

A case is on in the Supreme Court where Kerala has demanded decommissioning of the existing dam and construction of a new one and Tamil Nadu has sought increasing the water level of the existing reservoir from 136 feet to 142 feet.

An earlier report by IIT (Roorkee) had said that the dam “was likely to face damage if an earthquake of the magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale struck its vicinity when the water level is at 136 feet”.