Siruvani dam row: Jayalalithaa flags House resolution, urges Modi to act

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Saturday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to instruct Central authorities to act on the Siruvani dam issue and withdraw nod for an EIA study by bringing to his notice, a unanimous resolution adopted by the State Assembly over it.

"I request you to instruct the Ministries of Environment, and Water Resources to take immediate further action on the basis of the resolution passed unanimously by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly," she said in a letter to Modi in which she appended a copy of the resolution.

The resolution passed on Saturday urges the Union government not to accept the recommendations of the Centre's Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) for holding an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study for constructing a dam at Attappady near River Siruvani for the Attapady Valley Irrigation Project, proposed by Kerala.

It also urged the Centre to "not permit the governments of Kerala and Karnataka to take up any project in the Cauvery Basin till the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee comes into force and judicial references are finally settled."

Last month, she had sought Modi's immediate intervention to withdraw the recommendations of the EAC for conducting an EIA for a dam proposed by Kerala.