Minister sticks to earlier stand on Mullaperiyar issue

Friday, May 04, 2012: Minister for Water Resources P. J. Joseph said that he would remain firm on his earlier stand for the construction of a new dam at Mullaperiyar in the place of the 116-year old structure.
The issue has seen the neighbouring states-Kerala and Tamil Nadu at loggerheads. Tamil Nadu has accused Kerala of being alarmist by alleging that the 116-year-old reservoir has been rendered unsafe by numerous quakes.
The dispute has escalated with Kerala government hardening its stand to demand construction of a new dam and Tamil Nadu reiterating its stand that the retrofitted existing dam is similar to a new dam.
Meanwhile Kerala today informed the Supreme Court that that the state was willing to evolve a “political consensus” on the Mullaperiyar dam issue, which has seen both the states at loggerheads.
This was informed by Senior counsel Harish Salve and Rajiv Dhawan, both appearing for Kerala on the vexed dam issue. However the Apex Court today permitted Kerala and Tamil Nadu to get copies of the report submitted by the monitoring committee on the Mullaperiyar Dam row.
A five-judge constitution bench of the court headed by Justice D K Jain, while permitting the two warring states to get copies of the report in a sealed cover, posted the matter for further hearing to July 23.
“Both states should sit together and evolve a political consensus on the issue,” the counsel told the bench which responded by saying, “We can only wish and hope”.
The Empowered Committee, set up by the apex court in February 2010 to look into all aspects of dam, had submitted its report to the apex court in a sealed cover on April 25.