Chennai:
Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the security of Mullaperiyar dam. The Chief Minister has asked the PM to deploy Central Security Force at the dam.
"In view of the violent activities reported at the dam site, it is imperative that Central forces be deployed at the Dam immediately. I, therefore, request you to order the deployment of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the dam site to avert any man made catastrophic consequences immediately," the letter said.
Strongly condemning the Kerala government for spreading fear and panic, Jayalalithaa wrote, "The current situation of fear and panic mongering by the Kerala Government is beyond comprehension, and requires mature and informed decisions and wise handling at the level of the Prime Minister." (
Read full letter)
DMK chief M Karunanidhi too joined Ms Jayalalithaa in seeking Central security forces to protect the dam. In a telegram to Justice A S Anand, Chairman of the Supreme Court Empowered Committee on Mullaperiyar dam, he flayed Kerala's attempts to "create fear and panic in the minds of people of their people over the issue".
The Mullaperiyar dam issue has been a sore point between the two states. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy met the Prime Minister on Friday seeking his intervention. The Chief Minister had described as unfortunate Tamil Nadu's stand dismissing fears over the dam's safety.
Earlier last week, Mr Chandy had written to Ms Jayalalithaa, asking her to reduce the water level in the Mullaperiyar dam, mainly for safety reasons - the structure is more than 100 years old and the region where it is located has seen several tremors lately, at least 20 since July.
Tamil Nadu, however, has been demanding that the dam's water level be increased to meet its growing irrigation needs. Ms Jayalalithaa sent an acerbic reply in which she referred to "unwarranted provocations from across the border" and "the fear psychosis generated in Kerala."
The heated exchange came after Ms Jayalalithaa took the Kerala government to court over the dam row. In the Supreme Court, Tamil Nadu argued that the Kerala government "is spreading panic among the public about the safety of the Mullaperiyar dam which is not true." Ms Jayalalithaa has asked the court to stop officials in Kerala from commenting on the possible construction of a new dam.
But Mr Chandy reiterated that building a new dam was one of the options which should be considered.
The lengthy and bitter hostility between the two states has already seen the PM's intervention. In a letter written to Ms Jayalalithaa earlie this week, Dr Singh had said that "nothing should be said or done to create undue alarm" over the dam.
(Read PM's letter here)The dam is located in Kerala but it is controlled entirely by Tamil Nadu. Ms Jayalalithaa says the fears over the dam collapsing are unwarranted - and stirred up by politicians in Kerala because they want to restrict how much water is sent to Tamil Nadu.
The Kerala High Court has also taken up the matter after a batch of petitions on the dam's safety. It had pulled up the state government and asked it to explain what it's doing to protect lakhs of residents from the potential disaster of the dam crumbling. The state government had said that at least 450 families living near the dam would be evacuated soon.
The dam's structural safety was also questioned in 2008 when experts from IIT Roorkee suggested that it may not be able to withstand a quake measuring more than 6.4.
The Kerala Assembly has called a special session on December 9 to discuss the dispute.
The Mullaperiyar dam was built in 1895 in Kerala on the River Mullayar and its tributary, the Periyar. The water is diverted eastwards to service farmers in Tamil Nadu. Kerala has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the fact that all benefits from the dam accrue to Tamil Nadu.