Periyar dam issue: Economic blockade on Kerala

Madurai, Nov 15: The Mullaperiyar Rights Retrieval Committee, comprising different political parties and various farmers' fora, has decided to launch an economic blockade against Kerala, condemning its intransigence and non-compliance with the Supreme Court order in raising the storage level in the Periyar Dam.

Briefing newspersons on the decisions taken at a meeting of the Committee held here yesterday, Tamil Nationalist Movement (TNM) President Pazha Nedumaran today said the blockade was also to condemn the inaction of the Centre and the Tamil Nadu Government in implementing the court order.

All roads leading to Kerala, from Kanyakumari in the south to Coimbatore in the north, would be blocked to prevent passenger and goods traffic to that state. This was only a token protest, it was pointed out.

Kerala was warned of a permanent blockade if it failed to honour the Supreme Court order and raise the water level in the reservoir to 142 ft from the present 136 ft, maintained since 1979 to enable repair works, completed to the satisfaction of the Central Water Commission. The Court has allowed reverting to the original level of 152 ft in a phased manner.

He said the economic blockade would take place at not less than five points to cripple movement of foodgrains, vegetables and other essentials.

When Kerala was not willing to give water to the farmers what right it has to enjoy the produce from Tamil Nadu', Mr Nedumaran quipped, adding that the places would be identified in a couple of days.

Stating that the Periyar dam was the lifeline of the five southern districts, Mr Nedumaran expressed disappointment over the DMK government directing the Public Works Department (PWD) officials not to down the shutters and maintain the level at 136 ft. With the level crossing 136 ft, the discharge was being drained into downstream Idukki dam while efforts were on to draw maximum quantum of water for irrigation through the tunnels and vents to Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile the Periyar reservoir continued to receive copious inflows, though there was no heavy rain in the catchment areas, keeping the State PWD officials perplexed at the source of this abnormal flow.

Among those, who participated in yesterday's meeting, include Sivakasi MP, Sippiparai A Ravichandran of the MDMK, Tamil Nationalist Front (TNF) leaders P Maniarasan and Thiagu, Cumbum Valley Farmers' Association Vice-President K M Abbas, Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association leader S Rathinasamy, Meenakshi Sundaram and Janata Dal (S) State General Secretary K John Moses.

UNI

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