"The cabinet has now decided to go ahead with the new dam at Mullaperiyar taking into consideration the safety of the people downstream and also the irrigation needs in Tamil Nadu," chief minister V. S. Achuthanandan told a crowded press conference after the cabinet meeting here.
The cabinet discussed the report submitted to the government on Tuesday by the expert committee constituted by the government to go into the safety concerns of the 111-year-old reservoir. The committee strongly recommended that since the structure was already suffering seepage, it would be unwise to concede to the Tamil Nadu demand to raise the dam's level from the present 136 ft to 142 ft for meeting its irrigation needs.
"The cabinet went through the expert committee report carefully and took this decision to go ahead with the new dam instead of increasing the level of the existing one. It has also been decided to call for a joint safety inspection by the officials of Kerala and Tamil Nadu," Mr Achuthanandan said.
The chief minister called upon the Centre to take immediate steps to evolve an amicable settlement of the dispute between Kerala and Tamil Nadu over the Mullaperiyar issue. With increased monsoon inflows, the dam height had reached 138.2 ft on November 6 and the expert committee reported several new seepage points on the concrete backing of the dam.
At the meeting between Mr Achuthanandan and his Tamil Nadu counterpart Mr M. Karunanidhi, convened in Delhi by the Union minister for water resources SaifU-Din Soz in November last year, the former had urged