The Supreme Court on Monday allowed Tamil Nadu government’s plea for taking up the work for repair and cleaning of controversial Mullaiperiyar dam, which has been declared as safe by an empowerment committee appointed earlier by the top court.
A five judges’ constitution bench of Justices D.K. Jain, R.M. Lodha, Deepak Verma, C.K. Prasad and A.R. Dave permitted the repair and cleaning work, including dredging of the silt from the 116-year-old reservoir, which has become a bone-of-contention between Tamil Nadu and Kerala on its “safety aspect”.
However, the apex court said that the cleaning work would be undertaken in the presence of a superintending engineer nominated by Kerala government and a member of Central Water Commission, to avoid arising of any dispute between the two states.
The Tamil Nadu government in its application moved earlier this year had stated that “certain additional routine maintenance and repair work (apart from those mentioned in the earlier petition of 2011) are required to be carried out on the dam structure on an urgent basis.”
The repair work had remained “pending” for a considerably long period of time due to the inspection of the dam by the empowerment committee earlier.
The nature of actual repair work mentioned by the TN government, included relaying of the wearing coat on the top of “baby dam” and removing of the silt and debris for which Kerala was to be directed to clear entry of the leading channel and the tunnel from its side.
The Kerala should further be directed to permit the erection of the warning boards and iron gates in and around the dam premises, the TN government pleaded.
The top court is yet to consider the report of the empowerment panel on the safety of the dam as it would require detailed hearing from the counsel for both the states and the Central Water Commission on the report of the panel, headed by former CJI A.S. Anand.