The Weekend Leader - Holed up

‘Mullaiperiyar dam should not meet the fate of Babri Masjid’

Chennai

15-May-2012

Vol 3 | Issue 19

A fresh row is brewing between the Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments over the Mullaiperiyar dam issue concerning the huge holes drilled in the dam as part of the Supreme Court appointed Empowered Committee’s study on the dam’s structural stability.

The 5-member Committee headed by former Chief Justice of India Justice A S Anand had recently pronounced the dam safe and recommended that the water level in the dam can be raised up to 142 feet from the existing maximum level of 136 feet.

Kerala police prevented Tamil Nadu engineers from carrying out maintenance work on the dam

However, continuing its confrontationist approach, and refusing to settle for a peaceful settlement, Kerala government is now preventing Tamil Nadu engineers who are in charge of maintaining the dam to fill up the large holes on the dam.

According to R V S Vijayakumar, Vice President of Tamil Nadu PWD Senior Engineers Association, on April 20 some Kerala engineers with the help of Kerala police stationed at the dam site prevented a team of Tamil Nadu engineers and workers from filling up the holes with concrete slurry and had chased them away.

He said the technical teams appointed by the Empowered Committee had drilled eight holes in the dam, each dug to depths ranging from 130 feet to 190 feet and measuring about 6 inches in diameter for collecting samples for a scientific examination.

Vijayakumar said filling up of the holes is necessary for maintaining the health of the dam and it has to be done before the rains.

“Even a healthy person takes regular food in order to maintain his health. If one is allowed to starve, it leads to death. The Kerala government is not allowing maintenance of the dam only to weaken the dam,” he said.

Vijayakumar also alleged that the Kerala government had secret plans to blow up the dam by filling up the holes in the dam with explosives.

Mullaiperiyar dam should not meet the fate of Babri Masjid, he said, adding that the security of the dam should be immediately entrusted with either the Tamil Nadu police or the Central Industrial Security Force. – TWL Bureau

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