The Supreme Court today allowed Tamil Nadu’s plea to carry out some repairs and maintenance works on the controversial Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala’s Idduki district.
A five-judge Constitution Bench of justices, Mr D.K. Jain, Mr R.M. Lodha, Mr Deepak Verma, Mr C.K. Prasad and Mr A.R. Dave, also permitted the Kerala Government to have copies of the technical report, which was relied upon by the apex court’s Empowered Committee to conclude that the dam was “structurally and hydrologically safe.”
After passing the direction, the apex court posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks.
The Bench earlier had granted permission to Kerala and Tamil Nadu to get copies of the monitoring committee’s report on the Mullaperiyar dam row.
The Empowered Committee, set up by the apex court in February 2010 to look into all aspects of the dam, had submitted its report to the apex court in a sealed cover on April 25.
The five-member committee headed by former Chief Justice of India, Mr A.S. Anand, which had finalised the report, is understood to have examined all aspects of the 119-year-old dam including its safety.
The safety of the dam was a cause of tension for the two states. While Tamil Nadu contends that the dam is safe and its water level has to be raised from 132 ft to 136 ft, Kerala says the structure is weak and has to be replaced with a new one.
As tension rose between the two states in December last year, a two-member technical team of the Empowered Committee visited the site and concluded that recent tremors in that region did not have any impact on the Mullaperiyar dam and that it was safe.