The State government will file an additional affidavit in the Supreme Court leaving out the section of an Intelligence Bureau report that “cites” the threat to the Mullaperiyar dam by the remnant cadres of LTTE.
Reacting to the Opposition parties’ condemnation of the government for citing the IB report in an earlier petition seeking deployment of Central forces for dam’s protection, O. Panneerselvam, Minister for Finance and PWD, clarified on Monday that the Chief Secretary had merely brought to the Centre’s notice the IB’s Industrial Security Inspection Report on Mullaperiyar dam in his letter on May 12.
The report had strongly recommended the replacement of the Kerala police personnel by CISF or CRPF to guard the dam on priority basis. Requesting the Home Ministry to deploy CISF or any Central force, the Chief Secretary had only sent his letter as an annexure, Mr. Panneerselvam said.
Unlike the Opposition’s charge, the Tamil Nadu government had not blamed the LTTE at any point in its petition. However, the Chief Minister, after reading media reports, had consulted him and the officials concerned.
The details of the IB report which state that the key installations, including the Mullaperiyar dam, face threat from Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Naxalites were explained to her. In section 4.4, the report talks about the efforts of the remnant cadres of LTTE to regroup.
Even if there was no specific threat, the report has suggested precautionary measures to be taken. Nowhere the IB report specifically states the LTTE to be a threat to Mullaperiyar dam, Mr. Panneerselvam clarified.
