In what signals a major shift in Kerala’s stand on the Mullaperiyar dam row, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the dispute over the dam should ideally be resolved through talks between Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
“It is no use whipping up passions. The Mullaperiyar dam issue cannot be resolved by kicking up unnecessary controversies. Our effort should be to find a solution through talks with Tamil Nadu,” Mr. Vijayan told a news conference in New Delhi, telecast live by TV channels on Saturday.
The Chief Minister was briefing the media after his back-to-back meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during the day.
The Supreme Court-appointed supervisory committee had found that there was no basis for Kerala’s anxieties about the safety of the dam. The committee had found that the dam had become stronger after measures taken towards that end. This could not certainly be an excuse for automatic raising of the water level in the dam, but the outcome of the inspections conducted by the Supreme Court-appointed panel could not also be brushed aside. Although there was no change in Kerala’s stand on the issue even after the supervisory committee’s reports came, the State had not received any relief from the apex court, the Chief Minister pointed out.
Replying to a question on the State’s earlier decision to construct a new dam at Mullaperiyar, Mr. Vijayan asked what would the State do with the existing dam once a new one was constructed.
If there was no agreement with the findings of the Supreme Court-appointed committee, there could be further examination of its findings, he said.
