The Tamil Nadu government has rebutted allegations made in the Supreme Court that the Supervisory Committee for Mullaperiyar Dam “abdicated its duties” to evaluate the safety of the structure and water levels.
The State countered allegations that the Supervisory Committee constituted by the top court in 2014 has “delegated” its duties to a sub-committee.
The court had in September sought a reply from the State on a petition filed by Joe Joseph and office-bearers of the Kothamangalam block panchayat in Kerala expressing their apprehensions about the lack of proper supervision of water levels in the over-a-century-old dam located along the Periyar Tiger Reserve.
The State explained that the sub-committee is chaired by the Executive Engineer, Central Water Commission (CWC), with headquarters in Kochi. It has members from both Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The sub-committee periodically inspects the dam, collects data on seepage, collects water samples from the lake and seepage water, conducts water quality tests on them and so on and reports the details to the Supervisory Committee.
“The sub-committee members do not have any powers to give direction to the States. It is only doing the job of collecting information and data pertaining to the dam once in every two months, and if required, more frequently, as per directions of the Chairman of the Supervisory Committee, and furnishing the same to the committee,” the affidavit, filed through advocate M. Yokesh Kanna, said.
The sub-committee is only assisting the Supervisory Committee. This cannot be called the delegation of the authority of the Supervisory Committee, the affidavit argued.
The State said releases from the spillways of the dam are done in a systematic manner.
“Before operating the spillway gates during flood time, warning would be issued well in advance to the downstream authorities concerned of the State of Kerala before releasing water through the spillway. The answering Respondent (Tamil Nadu) ensures and takes care that no release is made without any warning, and sudden releases are not made through the spillway. The releases are made in steps so as not to cause any problem to the people who are living downstream of the dam,” the affidavit said.
It said all the aspects with regard to the dam safety and optimum utilisation of water to meet the drinking water needs and irrigation needs of five drought-prone districts of Tamil Nadu are being closely monitored.
“The Supervisory Committee duly assisted by the sub-committee are monitoring the system with reference to all safety aspects of the dam,” the affidavit said.
Tamil Nadu said it has been unable to collect rainfall data in the catchment area of the dam spread across 601 sq. km. on the tiger reserve in Idukki district of Kerala.
For forecasting the inflow from the catchment of the Mullaperiyar Dam, automatic rainfall stations coupled with telemetry system in the catchment area have to be installed. In that area, only one rain gauge station fitted with a weekly chart was available. Even in that, Tamil Nadu was not allowed to collect rainfall data and to change the rainfall chart in the equipment by the Forest Department of Kerala, since 2014.
In a Supervisory Committee meeting in 2015, Kerala had informed about its plans to install a rainfall forecasting system in six months to allow data flow to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and CWC.
“However, till date, such forecasting system has not been installed by State of Kerala,” the affidavit said.