‘Whipping up emotions on Mullaperiyar report unfortunate’

Thursday, May 10, 2012: Member of the Supreme Court appointed Empowered Committee on Mullaperiyar Dam Justice KT Thomas today said it was unfortunate that some quarters had sought to politicise and whip up emotions on the panel’s report, instead of looking at it rationally.
“Those who are finding fault with the report are doing so without understanding its contents fully. In a matter like this emotion should not get precedence over reason,” Justice Thomas, the nominee of Kerala on the panel, told.
In its report submitted to the apex court recently, the panel had said the Mullaperiyar Dam was safe and also asked the Kerala government to reconsider its proposal to build a new reservoir. Locked in a bitter row over the 116-year-old dam, Kerala is insisting on construction of a new dam to replace the existing structure to which Tamil Nadu is strongly opposed, saying interests of its farmers would be affected.
On criticism by Kerala Water Resources Minister PJ Joseph that Thomas had done injustice to Kerala by endorsing the studies which found the dam as safe, the former Supreme Court judge said this showed that the critics had failed to fully understand contents of the report. “I accepted that the dam is safe. This I endorsed based on studies by dam experts. So I did not append a dissenting note on that,” he said. “At the same, I have been able to make the majority of the panel to accept the alternative proposal of Kerala for building a new dam.
However, building a new dam will have to cross several hurdles. It would take several years to complete.