The State government should be careful in handling the Mullaperiyar case as the findings of the High-Power Committee would have a bearing on the verdict, former Minister for Water Resources N.K. Premachandran has said.
In a statement issued here on Friday, Mr. Premachandran said the State government should ensure that the project proposal for a new dam was foolproof. The services of international experts should be enlisted to protect the State's interest, he said.
The State government should also prepare a project report on the technical feasibility of decommissioning the existing dam and submit it along with the other report to the high-power committee. The State would be able to realise its long-standing demand for a new dam only if it took effective steps to present the two documents before the committee in a time-bound manner.
The onus was on the State government to convince the committee of the need for a new dam and the decommissioning of the existing one. Any loopholes or technical errors in the reports would end up in the rejection of the State's demand for a new dam, he added.
