New Delhi:
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said that the state government's stand on the Mullaperiyar dam has been vindicated by the Supreme Court-appointed Empowered Committee's report which concluded that the structure was safe.
"That is what we have been saying all along," she told reporters in Delhi. Ms Jayalalithaa was responding to a question on the report which also asked Kerala to reconsider its proposal to build a new dam.
The five-member committee headed by former Chief Justice of India Justice A S Anand also recommended that the water level at the dam, located in Kerala's Idduki district and maintained by Tamil Nadu Public Works Department, can now be raised to 142 ft from the existing 136 ft.
In the report, the committee, which made numerous visits to the site and conducted a slew of tests and surveys, has concluded that the Mullaperiyar Dam structure is safe on each of the "hydrologic, structural and seismic considerations".
While Tamil Nadu has been maintaining that the dam was "absolutely safe" and the water level can be raised to 142 ft, Kerala has been vociferous in its demand for a new dam to be built near the existing structure.