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Kerala, T.N. keen on settling river issues

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM FEB. 13. Tamil Nadu and Kerala have decided to expedite efforts to settle inter-State river water issues at the earliest during the ministerial-level talks held here on Thursday.

The expert committee, working on revision of the Parambikulam Aliyar, would be asked submit a proposal for the ministerial- level discussions before March 31. The next round of talks would be held in April.

While the Kerala Minister for Water Resources, T. M. Jacob, who headed the Kerala team at the talks, said the discussions were fruitful, the Tamil Nadu team, led by the Minister for Public Works, O. Panneerselvam, declined to speak to presspersons. Both sides would consider out of court settlement of the Mullapperiyar dam issue, though this would be a difficult thing to achieve.

Referring to Tamil Nadu's demand for Pamba Achankovil Vypar link, Mr. Jacob said that Kerala had no water to spare. A study conducted by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, Kozhikode, had shown that the hydrology of Vembanad lake would be affected if water is diverted from Pamba and Achankovil rivers. The Tamil Nadu team had been told of this study.

The Minister said that Tamil Nadu's concern about the weir being constructed by Kerala across the Bhavani river was the result of a misunderstanding that Kerala was trying to divert substantial portion of the flow in the river.

He said that during construction of the Siruvani dam, there was an agreement that Kerala should get five cusecs of water besides 2.5 cusecs for irrigation in Attappady Valley. However, work on the Attappady Irrigation Project had been discontinued for want of funds. Through construction of the weir, Kerala was only proposing to avail the water it had not drawn so far.

The proposed weir at Mukkali was only six metres in height. The canal, with a shutter at the mouth, was only two metres in width and two metres in height. It cannot carry water to the extent of denying lower riparian rights to people. The total estimate for the project was only Rs. 2.85 crores. He hoped that the Tamil Nadu team was satisfied by this clarification. Tamil Nadu had filed a petition before the Cauvery Tribunal on the issue and it was pending a decision of the Tribunal.

He said Tamil Nadu had been told that the water available to it from the Parambikulam Aliyar system would have to be reduced upon revision of the agreement which had expired in 1988. Kerala would get water from the system only if the availability exceeded 16.5 thousand million cubic feet. This had never happened in the past 40 years.

Tamil Nadu had constructed the Upper Sholayar dam after Kerala constructed the Sholayar dam. As per the agreement, Tamil Nadu should ensure the full reservoir level in Sholayar on September 1 and February 1. But now the water level was 25 feet below the full reservoir level.

Mr. Jacob said Tamil Nadu wanted an agreement with Kerala on supply of water from the Neyyar reservoir for irrigation in Kanyakumari district. He had promised to convey the view of Kerala on the matter after discussions at an all party meet the Government was proposing to convene on river water issues.

Kerala was providing sufficient water to Tamil Nadu from Neyyar though there was no agreement. This showed its goodwill.

On the new Pandiar Punnappuzha project proposal, the Kerala Government had promised to give its view after Tamil Nadu provided the details. Issues relating to the Walayar scheme (compensation for the submerged areas) would be examined by the technical committee.

It also had agreed to construct a small bridge for benefit of the people whose right of way had been affected by the Moolathara dam.

Tamil Nadu Ministers, C. Ponnaiyan, and D. Jayakumar, Kerala Minister, K. Sankaranarayanan, the Chief Secretary of Kerala, N. Chandrasekharan Nair, and his Tamil Nadu counterpart, Lakshmi Pranesh, were among those participated in the discussions.

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