Mullaperiyar row, PM steps in, TN, Ker officials meet likely

New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 2: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today stepped in to bring the warring states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala together to defuse the Mullaperiyar dam crisis and their officials are expected to meet to thrash out a solution. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy met the Prime Minister seeking his intervention for an early solution, a day after the confrontation between the two neighbouring states escalated.

AIADMK MPs also met Singh and sought his intervention. "Central Government has taken a concrete approach. Prime Minister has stepped in. Centre has accepted Kerala's demand that it should intervene to find an early solution to the Mullaperiyar Dam issue," Chandy, who also met Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, told reporters in New Delhi.

"Prime Minister has intervened. Discussion between two states on the issue will take place at the Central level," he said indicating that an official level discussions will take place initially on the issue. Chandy, however, did not reveal whether there is a possibility of a Chief Ministerial-level discussion on the vexed issue.

Sources in Kerala government said that the official level discussion is expected to pave for chief ministerial level talks to solve the crisis. AIADMK MPs submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister alleging that Ministers and officials of Kerala were "spreading panic and rumours" among the people through media on the issue, a day after Singh wrote to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Mullaperiyar Dam that nothing should be done or said that will create "alarm" among the people.

"These actions of the Government of Kerala go against the spirit of the Constitution of India and they are not in the interests of both states," the MPs said in a memorandum. In a bid to defuse tension and anxiety of people over Mullaperiyar dam, Kerala government said an action plan for disaster management had been put in place to contain the flow of water in the event of a dam burst.

PTI