Kerala's grouse: Centre played 'foul' in dam talks

DELHI DARBAR

Kerala signed a pact with neighbour Tamil Nadu 100 years ago. It is regretting it now. It was a 999-year agreement to share a river with the help of a dam near the famous wildlife sanctuary in Thekkady called Mullaperiyar.

However, while the dam on the Periyar river has been irrigating Tamil Nadu and giving it power since the 1970s, the earth tremors in 2000 awakened Kerala's concerns over the safety of the ageing dam. It wants the Centre to play the referee and liquidate the pact, whose long tenure of 999 years is just one ground for the state to oppose the pact.

The demand for a new dam has become shriller since the 2000 quake. This has been more so after a Supreme Court's recent ruling asked Tamil Nadu to raise the water level in the dam.

While voices grow louder and people more edgy, Kerala Water Resources Minister KN Premachandran has a grouse against the Centre.

Here in Delhi this week for the second round of talks with Tamil Nadu, umpired by Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz, Premachandran said a recent Supreme Court judgement gave Tamil Nadu a go-ahead for raising the level of water in the dam from 136 feet to 142 feet.

The basis for this ruling was a report by a committee headed by the Central Water Commission chairperson which put two options before the court""building a new dam or strengthening the 108-year-old dam.

The CWC had, in 1979, recommended building of a new dam as a long-term measure. Now a panel of the commission wants to keep the option of fortifying the dam open. The court merely upheld this, he said.

"Our state panel of experts rejected the option of strengthening the dam saying there is no example of such an old dam made of lime being fortified,'' he says. The dam is 60 per cent lime and 'surki' and the rest is rubble, he says.

The minister said Kerala and Tamil Nadu had disputes over various issued relating to the dam but since 2000, when Kerala experienced tremors for the first time, safety concerns were raised.

"Constructing an alternative dam is the only feasible solution. The water commission had favoured this as a long-term solution way back in 1979," he said.

Kerala and Tamil Nadu had, in a joint survey, arrived at the same conclusion. The construction was never taken up, he said. "We are glad that a CWC representative was present at the talks in Delhi," he said.

He wants the Centre to look at the pact, which is binding for 999 years. "Is it feasible for a structure to be functional for this long. The Centre has to reconsider it," he says.

"Is there such a parallel in the world?" he asks, brushing aside accusations of politicking by the Kerala political parties.

Meanwhile, the irrigation ministers of Kerala and Tamil Nadu met here for talks to resolve the dispute over the Mullaperiyar dam. The talks broke off with both sides showing no sign of backing off from their earlier positions.

Premachandran said his state stood by its demand for a new dam rather than increase in water level of the 108-year-old structure. The Tamil Nady minister said a new dam was not feasible.