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Tuesday, 9 November 2010

Kerala to inform SC committee on civil work of TN

The expert team of Kerala government that inspected the maintenance work on the disputed Mullaperiyar dam has accused Tamil Nadu of "misleading" the Supreme Court appointed empowered committee on the civil work carried out by the state.

The committee is slated to visit the dam next month.

The team in its report submitted on Tuesday to water resources minister N K Preamchandran said the Supreme Court committee members would have got a clear picture of the dam, if Tamil Nadu had avoided the work.

Preamchandran said the state government would take up the issue with the Supreme Court Empowered Committee.

The report further said maintenance work carried out was "unscientific". Tamil Nadu had plugged the seepage points in the downstream of the dam which was technically not feasible, sources said.

Tamil Nadu had carried out the work after 15 years with an intention to mislead the Supreme Court committee and it was an eyewash, the report said. It wanted the state government to carry out an underwater scanning to ascertain the seepages in the dam. It also asked the government to speed up the process of

constructing a new dam in place of the existing 116-year old reservoir, sources said.

The Kerala government had last week set up the expert team headed by M K Parameswaran Nair, Charman of Mullaperiyar cell to look into reports that Tamil Nadu was carrying out civil work at the dam ahead of the visit of the committee, headed by former Chief Justice of India Justice A S Anand for three days from December 21. Mullaperiyar dam on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border has been a bone of contention between the states for a long time. Kerala holds that the dam, built during British rule, is in a precarious condition and if it breaks, millions of people in downstream areas would be in danger.

The state conducted a survey for construction of a new dam, which was opposed by Tamil Nadu, which benefits mostly from the waters of the reservoir.

The issue has also been pending for long in the apex court, which about a year back set up a high-powered panel headed by former Chief Justice of India Justice A S Anand to study the matter.

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