Tree-felling near Baby Dam: UDF walks out of Assembly again, says govt misled House
Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition Congress-led UDF in Kerala on Wednesday staged a walkout in the State Assembly, alleging that the recent controversial order related to tree-felling near Baby Dam in Mullaperiyar was issued with the knowledge of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the Left government had misled the House in this regard.
While raising the issue as a submission, the opposition leader V D Satheesan said Forest Minister A K Saseendran and Water Resources Minister Rosy Augustine made contradictory statements over the matter.
Saseendran had earlier informed the House that no joint inspection was carried out by Kerala and Tamil Nadu in Mullaperiyar, he said.
However, power minister K Krishnankutty, who replied on behalf of Augustine in the House, took an opposite stand on the matter in Assembly today, the Congress leader alleged.
Saseendran had actually mocked at the people of the state by making one statement in the House and then a contradictory one in front of the AKG Centre later, the CPI(M) headquarters here, he said.
Also, the senior Congress leader alleged that the joint inspection of the officials of the two States, held at Mullaperiyar on June 11, was a pre-planned one.
The order, permitting Tamil Nadu to fell trees, was issued after the joint inspection and now the Ministers were claiming that they had no knowledge about it, he added.
"The order is only frozen and is yet to be withdrawn. It is against the general stand of the State that a new dam is needed in Mullaperiyar. It was issued with the knowledge of the Chief Minister," Satheesan said.
The Additional Chief Secretary of the Water Resources Department, who represents Kerala in the Mullaperiyar supervisory committee, is also in charge of the Home Department under the Chief Minister.
So, no such order would be issued without the knowledge of Vijayan, he said adding that the controversial order would adversely impact the State's demand for the new dam in apex court.
The Congress-UDF members walked out of the House later protesting over the government's stand in the issue.
The decades-long Mullaperiyar dam issue came to the fore again in recent days after Kerala had issued an order granting permission to Tamil Nadu for felling 15 trees downstream of Baby Dam at Mullaperiyar reservoir.
As the matter snowballed into a political controversy, the Kerala government had frozen the order, claiming that it was a bureaucrats-level decision and the ministers had no knowledge about it.
It also maintained that the Left government would never do anything against the interest of the State.
On Monday, the Assembly witnessed noisy scenes over the issue and the UDF demanded a judicial probe into it before staging a walkout. On Sunday, the government froze the order a day after the neighbouring State's Chief Minister M K Stalin thanked Pinarayi Vijayan for the decision.
