Chennai: A day after the Supreme Court rejected Kerala’s plea to review its May 7 verdict holding as safe the Mullaiperiyar dam and allowing raising of the water level to 142 feet, the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution, urging the neighbouring state to extend support for raising it to 152 feet.
“This House urges the Kerala government to extend support to raise the water level in Mullaiperiyar dam to 152 feet,” the resolution, moved by Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, said.
Amid protests from the Kerala government, the water level in Mullaiperiyar dam touched the 142-ft level on November 21 for the first time in 35 years.
The resolution urged the Centre to render appropriate advice to Kerala on raising the level.
It also said that the neighbouring state should support strengthening the Baby dam and carrying out the remaining activities in accordance with the Supreme Court’s verdict. Noting that raising the level to 142 feet had made Tamil Nadu’s people immensely happy, the resolution also thanked and lauded former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and the state government.
DMK members, led by deputy legislative party leader Duraimurugan, staged a walkout after his demand to amend the resolution was denied by Speaker P. Dhanapal.
“We wanted the resolution to be amended to acknowledge the efforts of former chief ministers M. G. Ramachandran and M. Karunanidhi in raising the water level too. But they did not allow it. Hence, we staged a walk-out,” Mr Duraimurugan told reporters outside the Assembly.
After the DMK’s walkout, Chief Minister Panneerselvam said that it was due to the efforts of his party chief Jayalalithaa that the water level was raised to 142 feet. He alleged that the DMK was lackadaisical on the issue while it was in power though the Supreme Court had given an order in early 2006.
The apex court on Wednesday dismissed the Kerala government’s plea to review its verdict, holding safe the Mullaiperiyar dam and allowing Tamil Nadu to raise the water level to 142 feet and ultimately to 152 feet after completion of strengthening measures on the dam. However, the Kerala Government, has said it would explore legal options to ‘overcome’ the apex court’s order, rejecting the state’s review plea.
