Mullaperiyar row: VS to stage fast on December 7

Wednesday, November 30, 2011: Opposition leader and CPM stalwart VS Achuthanandan will stage a 24-hour mass hunger strike on December 7 in connection with the Mullaperiyar dam issue which has seen Kerala and Tamil Nadu at loggerheads.
Achuthanandan today expressed concern about present condition of 116-year-old Mullaperiyar dam. Speaking to the reporters after visiting the Mullaperiyar dam here on Wednesday, Achuthanandan added that an out-of-Court settlement was required and the Centre must intervene in the issue.
He also demanded for an immediate approval for constructing a new dam citing the imminent danger posed by dam.

As many as 26 mild tremors and after-vibrations have occurred in parts of Idukki and adjoining Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts since January this year, officials said.
Any such incident is of great concern for Kerala as Mullaperiyar dam, set to be in a vulnerable state is situated in the district.
Mullaperiyar 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’.