Tamil Nadu will take measures to raise the Mullaperiyar water level to 152 ft and discussions in this regard will be held with the Kerala Government, Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam has said.
Holding pujas to open the shutter for water release to irrigate the farms in Tamil Nadu at a function at Thekkady on Monday. Mr. Panneeselvam said that former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had visited Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising the demand.
The water level in the Mullaperiyar dam was raised by the Supreme Court in its order in 2014 from 136 ft to 142 ft. Tamil Nadu tried for further raising the water as there was severe shortage of water in the five districts where farm lands are irrigated from the Mullaperiyar dam water.
The water level reached below 110 ft prior to the southwest monsoon this year. It was one of the lowest levels in the recent years making the intake of water from the dam by Tamil Nadu only for meeting the drinking water purposes. Large stretch of areas in Cumbom Valley was kept uncultivated during the last two seasons with severe shortage of water experienced there.
In addition to meeting the drinking water and irrigation purposes, Tamil Nadu also produces power from the water of controversial dam.
Meanwhile, Kerala has demanded that the Supervisory Committee appointed by the Supreme Court should immediately visit the dam in the wake of new leakages found on the block 10 and 11 of the old structure. A team of Water Resource Department led by Kerala’s representative in the Mullaperiyar sub panel George Daniel visited the dam on Sunday.
As per the Supreme Court order, the sub-panel should visit the dam every week when the dam waters rise above 125 ft (The present level is 127.4 ft). Though Kerala had demanded visit by the Mullaperiyar panel, it had not turned up since the monsoon started.
Sources in the Water Resources Department said that it would give report to the higher ups regarding the new leakages found to the dam. It is feared that the leakages would increase once more water is stored with the pressure on the dam increasing. Though the apex court had directed that the sub-panel should report to the supervisory committee every week regarding the situation, it failed to meet since the water level started to increase.
Kerala alleged that the meeting of the sub-panel was delayed as Tamil Nadu put pressure to do so. Kerala Chief Minister Pinaryi Vijayan had said that there was a brotherly relationship between the two States and the Mullaperiyar issue should be resolved through dialogues.
With the Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister’s reaction on Monday, a consensus on the Mullaperiyar issue
seemed to have eluded, according to analysts.