'Govts keep away from provocative statements'

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 25: All India Forward Block General Secretary Devarajan today suggested both that Tamil Nadu and Kerala should keep away from making provocative statements on the Mullaperiyar issue.

Talking to mediapersons here, he said the issue could not be solved through 'statement wars'. As such acts would help only to complicate the issue and sometimes lead to economic problems, it should be solved through a consensus.

Mr Devarajan said the officials in the successive governments failed to collect details and present the issue properly before the Court, which ultimately failed to get a favourable order from the Supreme Court for Kerala.

Alleging that officials were responsible for not establishing Kerala's arguments on the Mullaperiyar issue and getting a favourable order from the Court, he said a comprehensive inquiry should be ordered for not presenting the issues properly before the court.

The Forward Block leader said though both the states agreed for a joint inspection by experts, the Kerala government had sent its experts thrice for inspection without informing Tamil Nadu. This provocated the Tamil Nadu people and they did not allow the experts to inspect the safety of the Mullaperiyar Dam.

However, Tamil Nadu government inspected the dam with their experts and submitted the report to Apex court in their favour, he added.

On the denial of permission to the naval divers by the Tamil Nadu government, he said Kerala should have sent a communication in this regard to the neighbouring state, before taking such a decision.

UNI