Two technical members of the Empowered Committee appointed by the Supreme Court on the Mullaperiyar dam issue on Friday visited the Idukki arch dam and Cheruthoni in the Idukki reservoir.
Earlier, the team led by C.D. Thatte, former Secretary to the Ministry of Water Resources, and D.K. Mehta, retired Chief Engineer, Central Water Commission, visited the Pampla dam at Lower Periyar on the downstream of the Idukki dam.
The visit was to assess whether the main dam at Idukki and the Pampla dam on the downstream of the Mullaperiyar dam could afford the waters in case of a breach to the Mullaperiyar dam, and analyse the present condition of the dam.
The team will visit the Mullaperiyar dam on Saturday and later, the Vaigai dam in Tamil Nadu where the water from the Mullaperiyar dam is stored for irrigation and power generation.
The visit assumes importance as its report is significant to find a solution to the vexed issue. Journalists were not allowed and the Information and Public Relations Department had kept mum over the visit.
The team first visited the Cheruthoni dam, through which the additional water in the Idukki reservoir is diverted to the Periyar. The Pampla dam has the capacity to produce electricity from the additional water coming from the Idukki dam.
However, the team avoided visiting the Kulamavu dam of the Idukki reservoir, from where the water is diverted to the underground Moolamattom Power House in the foothill of Nadukani. The team held discussions with officials of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and the Water Resources Department at the Guest House here.
The team was accompanied by two KSEB representatives, in addition to Mullaperiyar Special Cell chairman M.K. Parameswaran Nair, cell member James Wilson, and Irrigation wing chief engineer P. Lathika. The team later left for Kumily.
Keywords: Mullaperiyar dam row, experts panel visit, Supreme Court
The safety of the nuclear plant is far greater than the threat posed by the 100 year old dam. So why are Tamils agitating against the nuclear plant when the risk posed by the dam is so high if you look at the probability of the failure of the dam. This is nothing about the Tamils, it is simple issue of the safety of a large population of the people of Kerala. One should read on the dam failures that happened in the last 50 years world wide to understand the issue.Hope some of these people slamming Kerala understands the seriousness of the issue, I am pretty sure that most of the ignorant bigots.
I suggest package solution by :- Making a new dam in tamilnadu area,
water should flow naturally from Mullaiperiar dam say from 40feet by
underground pipe line to new dam, give mullapriyar dam to central water
commission to take care of (even if dam is destroyed by aging factors,
central water commission should make a new dam and maintain it for rest
of the agreement period). Give kerala attractive water charges (per
tmc,on 3 years price revisable terms) for all its water supply to Tamil
nadu from various points.
Reality is that Kerala is very weak in lobbying and many of Kerala political leaders and financial sponsors of political parties got business in Tamil Nadu. So Kerala we never expect justice.
Kerala not even allowing EC members stand on their own and choose the location for inspection, its their job, let them to do the same, don't interfere on their job. And they know very well where to choose the location, Kerala should not tell specific locations for inspections, that is the reason one of the team member told keep quit.
Kerala never been accepted their problems, just shifting their problem
to others, even Mullaai periyar Lake gets another new dam the real
problem can’t be solved and Keralites one day they'll realize and U turn
against their government and Idukki dam, the reason is simple after
constructing the Idukki dam they are getting more earth quakes at nearby
area,
and these 550 ft high water leveled dam once constructed check before
and after construction, how many earth quakes are recorded in these
area, but Mullaiperiyar is far away from the most of the epicenter of
earth quakes. And 1985 onward linguistic minority Tamil schools are
slowly stopped at Idukki dt, , and terminated many of Tamil teachers
they are worked more than 10 years but they worked like a bonded labour
in a year 11 month and extended another 11 months like,
and against Tamils they used -10 paisa land auctions- for their land all of the sudden most of the land owners are landless saying various reasons, most of them they contested in the court to get back their lands but simply solves the same problem by Keralites by mean of money and officials are allowed to do very simply procedures but not in this case of Tamils.
in Kerala around 70% of the electricity produced from Idukki dt, but Idukki district mostly populated by Tamils they are neglected electricity and road, I know one of them he applied electricity very first time at 1985 but he get only 2010, that too Kerala electric Board peoples unload posts, wires and materials somewhere but peoples are find and transported at their rugged road by JEEP or by lifting all on the hills area (road? Don't ask about road) and post fixing, cable pulling and other jobs are done by peoples only never do by any of the officials, everything privately they have to do and pay.
by the way few years back only power reaches to few, except 40% of the peoples still they are queue at 'Ration shop' to get 2 Litres of Kerosene for lighting , but many of them enjoying produced power to all over Kerala, in this case of road mostly roads are made by peoples only, but Panchayat may be allocate fund every year, but never completes except few , we can say lot of truths, remains will come soon.
Let us hope that Supreme Court must take an impartial stand on this vexed issue based on the actual report of Empowered Committee. In the meantime, political leaders should actively intervene to ensure that peace and safety is maintained in both states. Don't allow any hooligan to exploit the situation. Unity and integrity of the country has to be safeguarded. Cordial and harmonious relation between both states which has been existing for centuries should continue further. Safety of the people is more important than anything else. May GOD bless us!
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