The Supreme Court-appointed Empowered Committee on Mullaperiyar Dam, whose term ends this month, has sought time till April to submit its final report.
The five-member panel, headed by former chief justice of India A.S. Anand, said it was waiting for another study report from the Kerala side before concluding its report on the contentious safety aspect of the structure.
The committee’s request for the term-extension has come at a time when all eyes are set on its decision after the Centre’s efforts to mediate between rival sides Kerala and Tamil Nadu failed repeatedly. The panel, which was looking into all aspects of the dam row, had maintained until the beginning of this month that it would finish its task within the stipulated time.
Sources said that the state, earlier this month, had written to the Committee to Coordinate (C2C) under the empowered panel, saying a crucial test was not carried out to determine the reservoir’s safety. The sources also said that Kerala had then insisted on postponing the submission of the panel’s final report, saying that it would be incomplete if the remaining borehole study was not conducted.
However, speaking to DC, the chairman of the Kerala government’s Mullaperi-yar cell, M.K. Paramesh-waran, said the state had no right to seek a postponement of the report. He said that the state had only emphasised its “long standing concern” that three more boreholes were to be grilled in spite of them being very crucial and approved by the committee way back in October 2010.
The committee, after meeting here on Wednesday, decided to hold another sitting on Feb. 26.