Stalin to meet Vijayan
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin will meet his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan in Chennai in December to resolve the decades' long issue of the Mullaperiyar dam.
image for illustrative purpose
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin will meet his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan in Chennai in December to resolve the decades' long issue of the Mullaperiyar dam.
Sources in the Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department said that the meeting would discuss the strength of the dam and the pitfalls regarding it. Kerala Minister for Water Resources Roshy Augustine and his Tamil Nadu counterpart and senior DMK leader S Duraimurugan will also be part of the meeting, sources said.
Kerala has been arguing that the Mullaperiyar dam be dismantled and a new dam constructed, but Tamil Nadu opposes it as the water from the dam is a lifeline for farmers in several parts of Tamil Nadu.
It is to be noted that Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, while speaking to the media persons at Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday, said that the Mullaperiyar dam is old and several people living in the area have expressed their anxiety to him and that a new dam was the need of the hour.
He said that he had communicated the anxiety of the people to the Kerala government and that steps should be taken to resolve the issue amicably. Mullaperiyar is a masonry gravity dam across the Periyar river and was constructed between 1887 and 1895 by John Pennycuick, a British Engineer. There was agreement to share the water with Tamil Nadu. Even though the dam is geographically located in Kerala, it is maintained and managed by Tamil Nadu.
