The recent visit of the Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court, led by Chairman A.S. Anand, to Mullaperiyar Dam, Baby Dam, and a site identified by Kerala for a new dam and its style of interaction brought hopes to farmers and officials in Tamil Nadu and also made Kerala officials to measure their steps.
The committee's refusal to meet the farmers' association and Cumbum MLA N. Ramakrishnan in Theni initially left farmers disappointed. When the chairman flatly rejected the proposal by Kerala officials to inspect Power House and Forby Dam, State political leaders reconciled themselves to the situation.
The same rigidness and curt replies of the committee continued during interactions in Thekkady next day.
In the meanwhile, politics came to the fore when Minister for Water Resources N.K. Premachandran honoured the committee members at Thekkady on Monday. The next day, Minister for School Education Thangam Thennarasu greeted the committee.
Interactions between the committee and Kerala officials at the dam site were more or less like a spar between rhetoric and manipulations and stick-to-point attitude and tactics.
The chairman retorted that issues should not be raised and only facts should be given, while reacting to a Kerala officer's remarks on the dam level. C.D. Thatte, former Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, reacted sharply to comments by Kerala irrigation officials on the use of materials for constructing dam and its present condition. “Do you say all such structures in the world are weak”?
When another Kerala officer elaborated on the weakness of the dam, the chairman replied that he would not listen to contentious issues. When he continued his speech, member Lakshmanan advised: Reserve your arguments for New Delhi.”
Kerala Irrigation Secretary T. Jayakumar told the committee that Kerala was going ahead with the construction of a new dam, as it completed its field survey and soil testing.
The PWD sources said that a team of technical experts might visit the dam again soon to check its strength using advanced equipment as Kerala told the committee in Cochin to check it fully.
Published - December 25, 2010 11:52 pm IST
