A Special Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court on Friday directed the Empowered Committee to provide copies of its report on the safety of the Mullaperiyar Dam to the Centre and Tamil Nadu and Kerala, while posting the matter for further hearing on July 23.
The copies were permitted to be given to all parties in a sealed cover by a five-member Bench, headed by Justice D. K. Jain, after hearing out the lawyers appearing for Kerala who said that the State was willing to negotiate with Tamil Nadu to arrive at a political consensus.
The report, running into almost 250 pages and divided into eight chapters, deals with the safety and security of the dam built around 119 years ago to divert the waters of the river Periyar into Tamil Nadu.
While Kerala has apprehensions that the structure is weak and should be replaced with a new dam, Tamil Nadu has maintained that it is fit and that its water levels could easily be raised. The Empowered Committee is headed by Chief Justice of India A.S. Anand. It submitted its report on April 25.
