The Hindu Business Line : Kerala to go ahead with new dam at Mullaperiyar

The Kerala Government would go ahead with the plan to construct a new dam at Mullaperiyar, the Chief Minister, Mr V.S. Achuthanandan, said in the Assembly on Monday.

Replying to a submission, the Chief Minister said that the construction of the dam would be taken up within the available resources of the State Government without waiting for assistance from the Centre.

Though the State Government had drawn up a disaster management plan in case of an emergency at the old dam, it was not a permanent solution to the problem.

Court hearing today

He said that the case filed by the Tamil Nadu Government in the Supreme Court on the validity of the Kerala legislation on dam safety would come up for hearing on Tuesday. “Let us wait for court’s remarks on the subject,” he added.

The Minister for Cooperation, Mr. G. Sudhakaran, said in reply to another submission that the State Government would take steps to reactivate the Kerala State Cooperative Coir Marketing Federation (COIRFED) to make it helpful to the primary coir producing societies in the State.

Coir rebate

He said that the Centre had discontinued the rebate scheme thereby rendering COIRFED unable to procure coir from the societies by extending the benefit of rebate to them.

Besides, corruption and mismanagement in the recent past had severely affected the federation with its turnover having come down from Rs 32 crore in 2001-02 to around Rs 2 crore last year.

The Government had allocated Rs 8 crore in the current year’s budget to rejuvenate the coir sector, the Minister said and added that Government was considering distress purchase of coir from primary producers.

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