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Nayanar ready for talks with Karunanidhi over dam

Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar said he is ready for talks with his Tamil Nadu counterpart M Karunanidhi to resolve the contentious Mullaperiyar dam issue. He, however, asserted that Kerala would stick to its stand of not increasing the storage level above the present 136 feet.

Replying to questions in the state assembly, he said his government was willing to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the issue. All measures, including bilateral talks and legal steps, would be taken to protect Kerala's interests, he added.

Nayanar said he had written to Karunanidhi that in view of the safety of the Cheruthoni and Idukki dams, Tamil Nadu's demand to revert the storage level of the Mullapperiyar dam to the original 152 feet could not be met. Various expert committees, he said, had pointed out that the century-old dam posed a threat to people living in three districts of Kerala if the storage level was increased without considering its strength.

Admitting that the issue affected the people of both states, he said a solution could be found only after considering all the aspects.

Stating that the river originated from Kerala, Nayanar said Kerala did not consider the Mullapperiyar lease agreement as an inter-state water dispute. The Union and Tamil Nadu governments had been categorically told that the dam's storage level could not be increased, he said and recalled that the Kerala assembly had also passed two unanimous resolutions in this regard.

Replying to supplementaries, he said that Kerala was not of the opinion that Tamil Nadu had violated the agreement.

To a question on whether the state government would take the initiative to demolish the baby dam near the main dam, he said there was no such proposal now.

Stating that the original copy of the lease agreement was missing, he said the government was considering legal opinion to modify the conditions in the agreement in favour of Kerala.

Denying that his government had promised a white paper on the Mullapperiyar issue, Nayanar said it was learnt that a similar promise had been made by Karunanidhi.

UNI

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