The Hindu Business Line : Mullaperiyar report tabled in Assembly

Thiruvananthapuram June 21 The State Minister for Water Resources, Mr N.K. Premachandran, on Thursday tabled in the Assembly an expert committee report on the health of the Mullaperiyar dam.

Headed by Dr Dhrubjyoti Ghosh, Senior Fellow (Sustainable Development) with the Kolkata-based Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, the committee observed that the there are chances of the dam breaking in case the reservoir level is raised beyond 136 ft.

It will be imperative to carry out a detailed environmental impact assessment as a statutory requirement to fully understand the ecological impact of raising the water level.

The other members on the committee were Dr H.S.A. Yahya, Professor, Department of Wild Life Studies and Ornithology, Aligarh Muslim University, and Mr Sarojkumar Patnaik, former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Orissa.

HEALTH INSURANCE

The Minister for Local-Self Government, Mr Paloli Mohammed Kutty, announced that the State Government was actively considering the launch of a comprehensive healthcare insurance scheme for the poor sections of the society.

He said this while clarifying why the State Government had decided against implementing an earlier scheme formulated by its predecessor after entering into a pact with ICICI-Lombard General Insurance Company.

The company had refused to take the arrangement to a logical conclusion since it was not eligible to claim a subsidy that the Central Government extended to such schemes prepared under the larger universal health insurance scheme but involving only public sector insurance companies.

The private sector player has since returned an amount of Rs 6.37 crore levied as premium as share from the beneficiaries and local-self Government bodies.

This amount has since been credited to the dedicated accounts of the respective local bodies and would be utilised while implementing the new scheme, the Minister said.

Viral cases

The Minister for Health, Ms P.K. Sreemathy, told the House that 10.27 lakh cases of viral fever have been reported in the State's hospitals as on June 17.

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