Centre making 'gross violation' of SC order by entertaining Kerala's request for new dam: Jaya

Chennai, June 11: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa termed the central government's decision to entertain Kerala's request to approve the terms of reference for an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for a new dam as "a gross violation" of a Supreme Court order.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi made public on Thursday, Jayalalithaa said: "The very act of entertaining Kerala's request and considering the same by the (central) government ... is a gross violation of the order of the Supreme Court of May 7, 2014.

"In fact, the government of India should have desisted from entertaining and considering the proposal and ought to have remitted the proposal back to the government of Kerala," she said.

Jayalalithaa wrote to Modi after the central environment ministry examined the terms of reference suggested by Kerala for conducting an EIA to construct a new Mulla Periyar Dam in Kerala's Idukki district.

"Under the circumstances, I seek your personal intervention and request you to instruct the ministry ... and its agencies to desist from entertaining and considering the proposal of Kerala in future and also to return (the proposal) it to the government of Kerala," she said.

According to Jayalalithaa, when a finality had been reached in the Mulla Periyar Dam issue, Kerala was seeking to subvert the Supreme Court order by stealth.

"Tamil Nadu has already filed an Interlocutory Application in the Supreme Court, seeking to restrain Kerala from conducting an EIA study and also reserved its right to file a contempt plea in the Supreme Court, and this matter has been adjourned to July by the Supreme Court," she said.

IANS