Lodging a strong protest against the Andhra Pradesh government for unilaterally increasing the height of the existing check dam across Palar river in violation of an inter-state agreement, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa asked her A.P. counterpart Chandrababu Naidu to immediately intervene and instruct officials to reduce the level of the check dam to its original level.
In her letter to Mr. Naidu, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister brought to his urgent notice the action of the Irrigation Department of the Andhra Pradesh government which has increased the height of the check dam from the existing height of 5 feet to 12 feet across Palar river at Perumballam village, in Chithoor district near the Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border.
Palar is an inter-State river and this unilateral action of the authorities in Andhra Pradesh has caused great alarm and apprehension in Tamil Nadu.
Already facing a deficit, the river supports an ayacut of about 4.20 lakh acres and the farmers in the northern districts solely depend upon the river for irrigation, she said.
The river with its sand strata is the only major source of drinking water for several towns and villages in the northern districts and it is the river water which is supplied to the Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam.
Palar river is an inter-State river and is one of the rivers mentioned in Schedule A annexed to the Madras-Mysore Agreement, 1892.
As per Clause II of the Agreement, the upstream State should not, without the previous consent of the downstream State of Tamil Nadu, build any anaicut or any structure to obstruct, divert or store the waters of the river across any part of the 15 main rivers, named in Schedule A appended to the Agreement, Ms. Jayalalithaa pointed out.
The Tamil Nadu government has already filed a suit on February 10, 2006 (OS No. 2 of 2006) in the Supreme Court seeking to restrain the Andhra Pradesh government from constructing any structure/works across the Palar river or at any other place through which the river and its tributaries flow or impounding/diverting water therein in violation of the Madras-Mysore Agreement, 1892.
Asking Mr. Naidu to intervene immediately, she asked him to instruct officials concerned to reduce the height of the check dam and not to store water additionally.
