Kerala govt firm on stand for new dam in Mullaperiyar

Jun 15, 2011 |

Thiruvananthapuram

Tags:

Mullaperiyar

Congress-led UDF government in Kerala on Wednesday said there was no change in their stand that a new dam be constructed at Mullaperiyar in place of the existing one.

"There is no change in the stand of the state government on Mullaperiyar Dam issue whether it is UDF or LDF," Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said after a cabinet meeting.

"Slogan of UDF is water for Tamil Nadu and safety for the people of Kerala. The intention of government is to resolve the issue amicably," he said.

The statement comes a day after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention on the issue during their meeting in the national capital.

Kerala's demand for a new dam was not a position against Tamil Nadu and not against its interests, he said.

Kerala and Tamil Nadu are at loggerheads over the question of building a new dam which will replace the current 110-year-old structure at Mullaperiyar, situated in Idukki district that borders the two states.

While Kerala is pressing for it citing safety aspects of the existing one, Tamil Nadu is worried that the state would not get sufficient quantity of water to irrigate parts of Madurai district.

The dispute is under the consideration of the Supreme Court which has appointed a High-Power Committee to look into safety and other aspects of the existing structure.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/79820" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-698aa4b5a78d77dcd99d97b4e52eb162" value="form-698aa4b5a78d77dcd99d97b4e52eb162" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="87554023" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>