Chennai: Strongly protesting the increase in height of a check dam across the inter-state Palar river from five to 12 feet, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Thursday urged her Andhra Pradesh counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu to cut down the reservoir’s level to its original position.
“I wish to bring to your urgent notice an important issue relating to the action of the Irrigation Department of AP increasing the height of the check dam from the existing five feet to 12 feet across river Palar,” she told Naidu in a letter.
The dam at Perumballam village across Palar in Chithoor district near the Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border, is on an inter-state river covered under the Madras-Mysore Agreement of 1892, she noted.
“This unilateral action of Andhra Pradesh authorities has caused great alarm and apprehension in Tamil Nadu,” she said.
Pointing out that Palar was already water deficit, Jayalalithaa said the river supported an ayacut (an area served by an irrigation project) of about 4.20 lakh acres in Tamil Nadu.
