The Mullaperiyar agitation should not turn in to violence and should end on a peaceful note, Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan has said.
Announcing solidarity with the hunger strike going on here, Mr. Achuthanandan, who also led an all-party leaders’ hunger strike for a day here on Wednesday, said that the agitation for a new dam in Mullaperiyar created a history of sorts among various agitations for public causes as it was held on a peaceful manner.
“Violence in any manner will not serve its purpose,’’ Mr. Achuthanandan said and added that violence will only help to deviate the attention from the agitation being held for a public cause.
Emphasizing the need for the cordial relationship between the people of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, he said that if police action on a party activists, who tried to make a symbolic channel at Mullaperiyar exceeded its limit, action should be taken against the police officials.
It was the peaceful manner in which the agitation held helped it to get the mass support and a new dam needed to be constructed in the same area marked by the representatives of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in 1971 and it should not be delayed in the wake of the frequent tremors experiencing in the region, he said.
Tamil Nadu should respect the sentiments of people who gave them water for the past 116 years. “They should be provided water and the only demand is that the life of the people on the downstream of the dam is to be protected and it should not be delayed,'' he said.
All political parties are unanimous in voicing the concern of the people and it is being expressed in a peaceful manner. The agitation should not cross the limit to enter in to a stage where it will affect the cause for which it stood, he said.
The fight is for a genuine cause and the people are united to support it, Mr Achuthanandan said.
