The Kerala government today voiced concern over the report of an expert committee that went into the Mullaperiyar dam issue and said the decision to set up a coordination panel was unilateral.
The Water Resources Minister, Mr N.K. Premachandran, said the State Government will bring the matter to the notice of the Empowered Committee going into the dispute between Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The expert committee has entrusted the Centre Water Commission, Central Soil and Material Research Station to study the possibility of constructing a new dam in place of the existing reservoir as proposed by the state government, he said.
“It was based on a CWC report that the Centre earlier took a decision to increase Mullaperiyar dam water level. So by entrusting the study on behalf of the Empowered Committee to an agency like CWC will harm the interests of Kerala,” he said.
Mr Premachandran said the Empowered Committee's technical director was the CWC Director, Mr S. Ghosh, which went against the Centre's assurance to the Supreme Court to not include a CWC representative in the coordination committee, he added.
The Mullaperiyar dam on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border has been a bone of contention between the states for a long time. Kerala holds that the dam, built during British rule, is in a precarious condition and if it breaks, millions of people in downstream areas would be in danger.
The State conducted a survey for construction of a new dam, which was opposed by Tamil Nadu, which benefits mostly from the waters from the reservoir.
The issue has also been pending for long in the Apex Court, which about a year back set up a high-powered panel headed by the former Chief Justice of India, Justice Mr A.S. Anand, to study the matter and seek to evolve an amicable settlement.