Tamil Nadu, Kerala MPs meet Singh over dam row

The political battle over the Mullaperiyar dam heated up yesterday with MPs from Tamil Nadu and Kerala seeking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention to resolve the complex issue.Singh is understood to have assured a delegation of Congress MPs from Tamil Nadu that a meeting of chief ministers of the two states would be arranged soon to discuss the contentious issue.The prime minister also assured them that he would talk to Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on the issue. MPs from Tamil Nadu argued that Kerala should not be allowed to build a new dam near the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar dam in Idduki district, which is prone to earthquakes. Federal ministers from Kerala who called on the prime minister in parliament were Vayalar Ravi (Civil Aviation), K V Thomas (Food and Public Distribution), Mullapally Ramachandran (Minister of State for Home Affairs), E Ahamed (Minister of State for External Affairs) and K C Venugopal (Minister of State for Power).After the meeting, Ravi told reporters that the prime minister assured the delegation he would look into the matter to help sort things out between the two states. “The prime minister heard us out and assured us that he would look into the issue,” Ravi said, adding that the central government was also working to settle the issue through a meeting between the chief ministers of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.Meanwhile, MPs from Kerala cutting across party lines held a demonstration outside Parliament House to press for their demand for building a new dam to replace the existing structure.As a counter move, four MPs from Tamil Nadu staged a protest close to the spot where the Kerala MPs were holding their demonstration, demanding that a Supreme Court directive on raising the storage level of the dam to 142ft be implemented.The Mullaperiyar dam has been a bone of contention between Tamil Nadu and Kerala for years.Tamil Nadu plans to have the dam wall increased to 142ft from the existing 136ft, and Kerala wants it reduced to 120ft, but has offered the construction of a new dam to meet the needs of its neighbouring state. However, Tamil Nadu is opposing the move, worried that it may lose control over the dam’s functioning.The issue figured at the 42nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) being held in Panaji, Goa, as film personalities and journalists from Kerala demanded the immediate repairs to the dam.Ravindran, a Malayali actor who was present at the festival, was one of the over 100 protesters who wore black bands and shouted slogans at the festival venue, demanding immediate repairs to the dam which runs across the river Periyar. “We are protesting here so that the international community takes note of the Mullaperiyar issue. The dam is disintegrating and needs immediate repairs,” said Ravindran, who made waves in a 1982 Malayalam film Eanadu. Award winning creative artist Soorya Krishnamoorthy who also participated in the protests said the central government should wake up to the plight of the Mullaperiyar dam. “We as artists and journalists are expressing our solidarity to the cause of the Mullaperiyar dam. The dam should be repaired at the earliest or three to four districts downstream of the dam will face terrible damage,” Soorya said.