By IANS,
Chennai: DMK president and former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi Monday alleged that Kerala is trying to convert the state into a “Sahara Desert” by enacting a drama about the safety of Mullaperiyar Dam and urged the central government not to be a mute spectator.
“Kerala is scheming to make Tamil Nadu like Sahara Desert. Tamil Nadu is not ready for that. Even an idiotic Tamilian will not agree for this. Kerala is enacting a drama by blowing up the safety issue of the Mullaperiyar Dam. The dam has been strengthened between 1981 and 1994 in three ways,” Karunanidhi said.
The dam is three times stronger now and will not be affected even if there is an earthquake, he said, speaking at the party headquarters at the end of the party’s day- long protest fast demanding protection for the dam by central forces and raising the water storage level to 142 ft from the current 136 ft as per the 2006 apex court order.
Karunanidhi urged the central government not to remain a mute spectator in the Mullaperiyar Dam issue as it does in other matters as the fallout of the issue will become a major problem in the future.
He said the Tamilians living in Kerala should be allowed to move around freely like the Keralites living in Tamil Nadu
Karunanidhi said the Kerala leaders should function without keeping in mind the result of a bypoll.
“The leaders of Kerala, experts and others should shake hands with the people of Tamil Nadu,” Karunanidhi said.
Taking a dig at Sohan Roy, the director of “Dam 999 movie”, he said: “It is sad that a movie director is using his talent to create rift between two states.”
Meanwhile, DMK leaders and cadres held protest fasts across Tamil Nadu.
Earlier in the day, former deputy chief minister M.K. Stalin warned Kerala “not to play with lives of people living in southern Tamil Nadu”.
Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been at loggerheads over the dam, built under an 1886 accord between the then Maharaja of Travancore and the erstwhile British Raj.
While it is located in Kerala, the control of the dam is with Tamil Nadu and its waters serves it.
Tamil Nadu wants the dam’s storage capacity to be increased from the current 136 feet (41.5 metres) to 142 feet (43 metres) as per a Supreme Court order, while Kerala wants a new dam as the control will be with it.
On Dec 9, the Kerala assembly passed a resolution that the central government should sanction a new dam and till this happens, the storage level in the existing dam should be brought down to 120 ft.
Meanwhile the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court issued notices to the central and the two state governments, answerable in four weeks, on the issue of deployment of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to protect the dam.