Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to drop the proposed Dam Safety Bill saying it could affect Tamil Nadu with the state locked in a dispute with Kerala over Mullaiperiyar Dam.
In his meeting with the PM at New Delhi, Vaiko said the Bill should not be passed and even if it was passed, the concerns of Tamil Nadu should be taken on board.
Taking up the vexed issue of Mullaperiyar dam between the two states, Vaiko recalled a legislation passed in Kerala in 2007 in the wake of a Supreme Court verdict allowing Tamil Nadu to increase the storage level, which was apparently aimed at nullifying the apex court order.
Vaiko told Singh that the Centre was now trying to enact a similar legislation (Dam Safety Bill), and recalled a letter written by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa opposing the Bill, the release said.
The new legislation, if passed, would make states stake claim for dams which could affect inter-state relations, he said and pressing Singh to resolve the Mullaperiar issue at the earliest.
He also took up the case of death row convict in the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case Perarivalan, seeking its commutation.
Perarivalan had spent 20 years in prison and that his case could be considered on the lines of another convict Nalini, whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, he said.
Vaiko also took up the Sri Lankan Tamils issue with the Singh, and later met Home Minister P Chidambaram and raised the issue of commuting the capital punishment awarded to Perarivalan.
