Friday, November 25, 2011: MPs from Kerala have decided to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today with the aim of amicably settling the issue of Mullaperiyar Dam.They would meet Manmohan Singh in his chamber at 12.45 pm, sources said. The MPs will demand that Kerala should be allowed to construct a new dam in place of the existing structure which is weakened by the recent tremors, posing a threat to not only the livelihood but lives of millions of people.
Meanwhile the recurrence of mild tremors in Idukki district in Kerala is causing concern over the safety of the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar dam. The dam was built when this part of Kerala was part of the Travancore princely state and Tamil Nadu under the Madras province under the British rule.
The dam has since then been a major source irrigation for the agricultural belt of central Tamil Nadu districts. For the past two decades however, the dam has been a subject of hot dispute between the neighbouring states.
While Kerala wants to decommission the structure and build a new one, that idea has not found favour with Tamil Nadu. Apart from local resistance groups, political parties on both sides have often taken aggressive postures on the issue.
In 2006, Kerala government passed the Kerala Irrigation and Water Conservation (Amendment) Act 2006, which prohibited the raising of water level beyond 136 ft in the Mulla Periyar Dam as it was placed under the Schedule of ‘Endangered Dams’.
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