The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to a request made by the Centre to postpone the hearing of a case concerning the safety of the 126-year-old Mullaperiyar Dam.
A Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar scheduled the hearing for March 16, but made it clear that no further adjournment requests would be entertained by the court.
‘Kerala posing hurdles’
Recently, Tamil Nadu had filed an affidavit affirming that the dam was safe hydrologically and protected from earthquakes. Countering Kerala’s allegations of non-cooperation and lack of concern, Tamil Nadu accused its neighbour State of adopting an “obstructionist attitude”.
Tamil Nadu, in fact, said the installation of instruments to protect the dam structure and warn of dangers to the Earth Dam and the Baby Dam had been hanging in a limbo since 2015. This was solely because the Kerala’s forest department had refused permission to cut 23 trees.
In January, Kerala had accused Tamil Nadu of adopting an “obsolete” gate operation schedule, dating back to 1939, at the dam.
In its affidavit, Kerala had in turn informed the court of a Central Water Commission (CWC) inspection report which said that 70% of the installed instruments for monitoring the safety and health of the dam were not working properly.
It said Tamil Nadu was yet to install the two seismoaccelerographs recommended to monitor tremors.
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