By IANS,
Chennai : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi Wednesday announced that former Supreme Court Justice A.R. Lakshmanan will represent the state on the five-member committee constituted by the apex court to review the safety of the Mullaperiyar Dam.
He said in the state assembly: “The Supreme Court declined to entertain the government’s recall petition – the petition to recall the court’s decision to constitute a five-member committee – and the central government requested the state to nominate a member on April 4.”
“After consulting legal experts and considering that the final decision on the Mullaperiyar Dam case is important, the government has decided to participate in the committee. Retired Supreme Court Justice A.R. Lakshmanan will represent the state.”
The ruling DMK had voiced its strong opposition to the panel appointed by the apex court headed by former chief justice of India A.S. Anand to look into all issues related to the dam’s safety and the water storage level.
The court had asked both Tamil Nadu and Kerala, fighting a legal battle over the Mullaperiyar Dam, to nominate one technical expert each as members of the panel, while the central government was to nominate two technical experts.
Condemning the DMK’s opposition to the Supreme Court-formed panel, AIADMK General Secretary J. Jayalalithaa had then urged the state government to nominate as member a person who can effectively put across the state’s viewpoint on the Mullaperiyar Dam case.
Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been at loggerheads over the dam built under an agreement signed in 1886 between the then Maharaja of Travancore and the British administration.
While the dam is located in Kerala’s Idukki district, it serves Tamil Nadu. Both the states were carved on linguistic basis in 1956 during reorganisation of states after Independence.
In recent years, Tamil Nadu has demanded that the storage capacity of the dam be raised from 136 feet (41.5 m) to 142 feet (43 m) to meet the increasing demand of water for irrigation. But Kerala wants a new dam as a recent study done by IIT Roorkee had found that the dam would collapse if a quake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale occurs.