The Kerala Assembly on Monday unanimously passed a resolution requesting the Centre to mediate in discussions with Tamil Nadu for the construction of a new dam at Mullaperiyar on the inter-State border. The resolution came in the context of the Supreme Court verdict of May 7 that went against the interests of Kerala in the Mullaperiyar dam issue.
The resolution, moved by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, also wanted the President to intervene in the issue for referring the case to a bigger Constitution bench of the apex court. It also said that raising the reservoir water level from 136 feet to 142 feet would create serious environmental problems and that the Centre should help to find a solution to this.
The Assembly chose to go for a resolution as not much had been left to be done for the State for safeguarding its interests after the May 7 Supreme Court verdict. The State fears that a breach in the 118-year-old Mullaperiyar dam could wipe out everything in five districts. The human population which could be affected by such an eventuality is put at four million.
The May 7 order of a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had granted almost all the pleas of Tamil Nadu, which has been drawing the entire water of the Mullaperiyar reservoir inside Kerala territory as per an agreement signed in 1886 between the then Madras Government and the Maharaja of Travancore. This lease agreement is valid for 999 years.
It was Opposition leader and former Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan who began the discussion on the matter in the Assembly as per Rule 130. Presenting the topic before the House, Achuthanandan held the former and present UDF regimes for taking the dam issue to a dead end as far as Kerala was concerned by committing legal and public relations ‘blunders’ repeatedly.
Achuthanandan accused the UDF Government of being irresponsible in the conduct of the Mullaperiyar case in the Kerala High Court and the Supreme Court. He said the conclusion of the court-appointed high-power panel that the dam was safe and strong was mysterious. The Opposition leader wanted an agency of international standards to examine the dam’s strength.
Former Power Minister and CPI(M) legislator AK Balan wanted State Advocate General KP Dandapani to be called before the Assembly to give an explanation over his conduct in the court. Balan pointed out that it was some submissions of the AG in the High Court that had worked against Kerala’s interests in the Supreme Court.
On December 2, 2011, Dandapani had surprised Kerala by telling the High Court that a breach in the existing Mullap-eriyar dam need not cause a catastrophe in the State as the giant Idukki reservoir situated downstream on River Periyar could contain the entire water mass flowing out of the Mullaperiyar reservoir. Speaker G Karthikeyan rejected Balan’s demand.
The Chief Minister, who moved the resolution at the end of the debate, defended Dandapani in his speech saying that he had not given any affidavit in the High Court which stated that Idukki reservoir could contain the Mullaperiyar water. The AG had given the controversial statement while replying to a different question in a different circumstance, he argued.