Maintaining that the State's concern is the safety of its people living in the downstream of the Mullaperiyar dam, Kerala has asserted that a solution to the vexed problem lies in constructing a new dam that assures water to Tamil Nadu and safety to its people.
In its response filed before the Supreme Court-appointed Empowered Committee headed by former Chief Justice of India A.S. Anand on Monday, Kerala said “when Mullaperiyar dam breaks, the downstream Idukki dam may also overtop, leading to a catastrophe. In that case, nearly 40 lakh people living in the downstream of Mullaperiyar up to Kochi would be affected by the fury of flood.”
The State asserted that the committee, which also includes two former Supreme Court judges K.T. Thomas (from Kerala) and A.R. Lakshmanan (from Tamil Nadu), was competent to go into the issue of a new dam, as it could adopt both adversarial approach as well as investigative method. “Its powers include power to summon witnesses and documents, inspection of the dam site and area, direction to conduct of tests or experiments, direction to take physical samples and direction to conduct studies.”
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Kerala submitted that the object of inquiry of the committee was to explore the truth and suggest a solution by promoting consensus, failing which, by a recommendation to the Supreme Court.
It said that the report of the committee that was relied on by the court in the 2006 Mullaperiyar case suffered from manifest errors, particularly with regard to assessment of probable maximum flood and its impact on the structural safety of the dam, impact of seismic effect and impact of huge leaching, leading to deterioration in the structural integrity and non-consideration of safety of the main Mullaperiyar dam as well as its earthen bund. Tamil Nadu, in any case, had no right to cause any submergence of the lands vested in the State of Kerala, which are not part of the alleged lease deed of 1886.
“The Mullaperiyar dam region lies in seismic zone III where earthquakes of maximum intensity of VII of MM scale might happen. The site-specific study conducted by IIT, Roorkee, finds that the Mullaperiyar dam would be subjected to a Peak Ground Acceleration of 0.21g, if the Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) were to occur in the region. In such an event, the Mullaperiyar main dam and baby dam would suffer damage eventually leading to the collapse of the structure.”
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The Amendment Act of 2006 passed by the Kerala Assembly fixing the storage level at Mullaperiyar at 136 ft, subject to variation by the Dam Safety Authority, was enacted inter alia having regard to the safety of the Mullaperiyar dam, environmental considerations arising from the storage beyond 136 ft and submergence of lands in Kerala beyond the leased land (RL 155 ft), when the probable maximum flood impinges on the storage.
Kerala said the real grievances of Tamil Nadu should have been denial of water. “If Tamil Nadu establishes that it has been deprived of water by the keeping the storage at 136ft, then it has a case against Kerala. But Tamil Nadu is avoiding to plead its real grievance,” the State said with liberty to file additional documents. The committee is meeting here on August 23 to hear the matter.