Standing at the tail-end of the 200-odd kilometres of ‘human wall' in which tens of thousands of people lined up shoulder to shoulder from Mullapperiyar to the Kochi backwaters on Thursday, Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to give orders for the construction of a new dam in place of the 116-year-old Mullapperiyar dam.
The ‘dam-to-Arabian Sea' line-up, sponsored by the Left Democratic Front to press for a new dam, was cheered on by large crowds of people en route. The participants mainly raised the slogan ‘Water for Tamil Nadu, safety for Keralite lives' which, they asserted, could be secured only by building a new dam.
Although the wall was mainly an LDF event, a large number of organisations across the political spectrum and several social, cultural and religious bodies showed up for the exercise, which was flagged off by CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan at Kumily. The human wall per se lasted only 15 minutes from 4 p.m., but the participants had turned up a long time before it.
Mr. Achuthanandan, who has emerged as the spearhead of the agitation for the new dam, symbolically constituted the last link in the human wall. Addressing a meeting, held against the backdrop of the Kochi backwaters, Mr. Achuthanandan called upon the Prime Minister to issue orders for the construction of a new dam. He also wanted the Malayali members of the Union Council of Ministers to convince the Prime Minister of the need for a new dam and to assert that it was the Prime Minister's duty to intervene. The old dam, if it burst, would wash off the lives millions of Kerala people, he cautioned.
Funds for the new dam would not be a problem at all, he said, as Malayalis would overwhelmingly contribute money for the purpose. Referring to the Advocate-General's ‘flawed' statement in the High Court, Mr. Achuthanandan said the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had used it for buttressing her arguments against a new dam in her letter to the Prime Minister.
Jurist V.R. Krishna Iyer, in his brief speech, said the dam issue was not just an issue of water alone, it was an issue of democracy and people's rights. Referring to an international pact, Mr. Iyer said that even if a single expert found a flaw in the existing dam, an alternative dam could be built to save lives. Kerala could use this provision to build a new dam, he suggested.
Senior leaders of all the constituents of the LDF — including LDF convener Vaikom Viswam and former ministers — as well as leaders of several non-political organisations spoke at the meeting offering their support for building a new dam. They said water supply for Tamil Nadu should be ensured even if a new dam was built.
