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Tamil Nadu
Durai Murugan CHENNAI: Public Works Minister Durai Murugan on Wednesday quoted a document published by the Kerala government in 1958 to support the State’s contention that the Neyyar is an inter-State river. In a response to Kerala Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran’s observations at a press meet in Thiruvanthapuram last week, he said the Kerala government’s ‘Water Resources of Kerala – Advanced Report 1958’ clearly showed that the Neyyar was an inter-State river. However, “for reasons best known to that government,” the ‘Water Atlas of Kerala’ published by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, an organisation of Kerala, in 1995 showed that the river basin was lying exclusively in Kerala territory. “The part of the basin lying in the Tamil Nadu territory has been effaced and suppressed in this latter document.” He said the State’s contention on the Neyyar was also based on topo sheets of the Survey of India (sheet no. 58-H/2&3). The Minister termed “distortion of facts,” Mr. Premachandran’s observation that he (Mr. Durai Murugan) had earlier admitted that the Neyyar was not an inter-State river. Acknowledging that the Tamil Nadu government was confronted with contradicting documents as to whether it was an inter-State river or not, Mr. Durai Murugan explained the circumstances in which he had made the statement. Responding to a letter written in May 1999 by the then Irrigation and Labour Minister of Kerala V.P. Ramakrishna Pillai, stating that since the Neyyar was not an inter-State river, it would not be necessary to conclude an inter-State agreement for sharing its waters, he wrote a reply in September 2000, impressing upon the Kerala government the need for an agreement in sharing of capital cost and maintenance cost and for finalising the rules of regulations in the Neyyar irrigation system “even though the Neyyar is not an inter-State river.” Recalling that he had given three reasons as to why an agreement should be concluded, the Minister said “the emphasis in that letter was for the conclusion of an agreement, irrespective of whether Neyyar was an inter-State river or not.” He described as unfortunate the statement of Mr. Premachandran quoting “the less relevant part” of his (Mr. Durai Murugan’s) letter “out of context” as if the Tamil Nadu government had conclusively admitted that the Neyyar was not an inter-State river. For amicable settlementReiterating that Tamil Nadu was “genuinely interested” in settling the row amicably, notwithstanding arguments and counter arguments, the Minister appealed to Kerala to appreciate the fact that the ayacut of 9,200 acres in Kanyakumari district, which was getting the Neyyar river water for over 35 years, could not be denied the established facility. So, the terms of the proposed agreement should be based on the facts and principles of natural justice.
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