No threat to Mulla Periyar dam from LTTE: Tamil Nadu

Chennai, July 6: The Tamil Nadu government does not agree with intelligence warnings that the Mullaperiyar dam faces threats from Sri Lanka's vanquished Tamil Tigers, Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam said on Monday.

The state government will state this in an additional affidavit it will file in the Supreme Court in the Mulla Periyar Dam case.

In a statement here, Panneerselvam refuted opposition allegations that the Tamil Nadu government had filed an affidavit in the apex court stating that there was a threat to the dam from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was crushed by the Sri Lankan military in 2009.

The minister said a central intelligence agency had said there was a threat to important national structures like dams from organisations like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Maoists.

Panneerselvam cited the central intelligence report as saying that the surviving members of the LTTE had taken an anti-India stance because India didn't help it in the final war against Sri Lankan troops in 2009.

As the affidavit filed earlier has created unnecessary bad feelings against the state government, Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa wanted an additional affidavit in the Supreme Court.

Panneerselvam said the Tamil Nadu government would state that it does not agree with central intelligence assessment regarding the threat posed by the LTTE to the Mulla Periyar Dam.

IANS