The Tamil Nadu government has begun
work on increasing the
level of the Mullaperiyar Dam to 142 feet as per the orders of the Supreme
Court. The work began with a 12 member team taking up the shutter renovation
work. As a first step, efforts would be made to operate the shutters manually
as well as through power motors.
The Supreme Court had on May 7 struck down a law
promulgated by the Kerala government declaring Mullaperiyar dam as endangered
and restrained it from obstructing the Tamil Nadu government from raising the
water level.
The apex court had held that the dam is safe and
allowed the Tamil Nadu Government to raise the water-level to 142 feet as after
completion of strengthening measures on the dam. The dam is situated in
Thekkady district in Kerala and operated by Tamilnadu. Our correspondent
reports that the Mullaperiyar issue has always been a controversial one for
both the states as Kerala had expressed fears that the dam was built in a
seismic zone. The dam which is an engineering marvel was built by the British
Government. Pennycuick, was a British engineer who sold his property to finish
the construction of the dam in 1887. The Periyar river which flows westward
into the Arabian sea was diverted eastwards to flow towards the Bay of Bengal
to provide water for the arid rain shadow region of Madurai. Initially the dam
waters were used only for the irrigation of more than one lakh acres.There have
been many cases by both Kerala and Tamilnadu at the Supreme Court to raise the
water level from 136 to 142 feet. The expert committee which was formed to
assess the strength of the dam has suggested a few repair works and finally the
Court after confirming the sturdiness of the dam had given the green signal to
raise the water level to 142 feet. For Tamil Nadu, the Mullaperiyar dam and the
diverted Periyar waters act as a lifeline for the farmers of Theni, Madurai,
Sivaganga and Ramnad districts.
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