TN, Kerala to deal PAP bilaterally

There was no major breakthrough in the meeting between officials of Tamil Nadu and Kerala over the inter-State disputes held in Delhi last week with both the States sticking to their demands. However, both the States informed the Central Water Commission (CWC) that they would deal with the issue relating to the implementation of the Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) bilaterally and identify the terms of reference of the review before coming to the commission.

During a meeting at the CWC in Delhi last week, the CWC Chairman suggested that a detailed study of the documents relating to the review of the PAP agreement since 1988 would be required to suggest a way forward.

Mullaperiyar issue

PAP benefits Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts in Tamil Nadu and Palakkad and Trichur districts in Kerala. Though Tamil Nadu wanted to take up the Mullaperiyar issue, the CWC chairman said it could be taken up later.

As for the Attapady Valley Irrigation Project, Kerala contended that it was now binding on the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to issue the terms of reference for the Environment Impact Assessment study, while Tamil Nadu claimed that Kerala had not shared the detailed report of the project so far. Kerala claimed that it had never committed formally to supply water from the Neyyar Irrigation Project to Tamil Nadu, and hence, it could not be considered as a ‘right’ by the latter.

However, Tamil Nadu contended that Neyyar was an inter-State river, since two streams originate and run in Tamil Nadu and then join with the Neyyar reservoir.

Kerala claimed that the Shenbagavali anicut, which was in a dilapidated condition, was inside the Periyar Wild Life Sanctuary. Therefore, it said that it could not agree for the repair of the “unauthorised structure”. It also termed the issue a “closed chapter”. However, Tamil Nadu said it was persuading the Kerala government to give its concurrence and further urged the Centre to resolve the issue.