Open Letter on Mullaperiyar Dam Issue

Mullaperiyar Imbroglio -Question of safety or control?

 

Being lop-sided and thoroughly opinionated, inflammatory articles published by Malayalam media stoke passions against Tamilnadu over the controversial Mullaperiyar Dam by hoodwinking the people of Kerala as well. The Malayalam media has taken a great opportunity to blow the issue beyond the safety, livelihood of the people in two states and turned into a frantic gathering just for vote-bank politics.

The statement that the Mullaperiyar row between Kerala and Tamil Nadu should be settled out of court implies that the Kerala government disregards opinion of the apex court and the points made were unwarranted when matter is sub-judice. As the sovereign owner of the Mullaperiyar, Kerala has a right to dictate what it wants to do with the dam. Yet, on the Tamil Nadu side, the issue is really the proposed breach of a corporate contract – not sovereign right over the dam and its water. Under the long lease agreement on Mullaperiyar, Tamil Nadu not only gets the water, but also the right to operate and maintain the dam – in other words, it controls the dam. While Kerala maintains that the amount of water that Tamil Nadu receives will be maintained, there is obviously a trust deficit. After repeated failures to resolve the issue at the state level necessitated the entry of Union Ministry of Water Resources and the Central Water Commission under it, into the resolution process, the states are now entangled in a legal battle, with Kerala challenging the certification by the Central Water Commission. In February 2006, the Supreme Court passed a judgment based on the CWC’s report that the water level in the dam could be raised to 142 feet. But the Kerala assembly, in a special session, passed a law that it should not exceed 136 feet. Tamil Nadu responded with a suit in the Supreme Court under Article 131 of the Constitution.

Kerala’s demand for a new dam defying the SC verdict, disregarding the dam panel technical members’ report underestimate the competence of the supreme technical authority of the country to decide over dam safety and poses a serious threat to interstate relations which are already tainted. If safety is the only issue, there are easy solutions but if Kerala is miffed about losing control of a dam on its soil, the solutions remain remote. Kerala’s adamancy on a new dam is based on perceived threats rather than any real danger. A perceived fear has no scientific basis or theoretical backing. If at all an earthquake above 6.5 on the Richter scale hits Kerala or Tamil Nadu, since South India does not fall on any fault line there are other dams, too, which might develop cracks.  The agitation to rebuild the 100-year-old dam started after some newspapers put out alarmist reports about earthquakes far away in the Indian Ocean. Minor earthquakes of less than 4 on the Richter scale keep happening and a region which has had no earthquakes is quite unlikely to break apart at the prospect of bringing down a 100-year-old dam.

The argument that Tamil Nadu's rights in this case are not riparian rights as in the Cauvery case, but arise out of an agreement is highly prejudiced. The lease between Travancore and Madras presidency was for 999 years, and hence has not expired. If the agreement between Travancore and Madras presidency were invalid, the dam and its catchment area should have been handed over to TN when the new states were created. It was only after the creation of Kerala, in 1956, that the state raised objections that the old agreement had become invalid. Kerala even challenged it in the Supreme Court, but the court ruled that the agreement would hold. With the Kerala government’s threat that Mullaperiyar is not an inter-state river and TN has no right to water from it, it is absurd for TN to believe Kerala’s assurances. TN is unlikely to believe Kerala’s protestations that it will provide the same amount of water to TN after a new dam is built because, in an earlier submission to the Supreme Court, Kerala had said Tamil Nadu has no right to the dam and the water as the catchment area and the dam lie within Kerala.

The argument that ecology is at risk in the downstream areas is also erroneous as people were allowed freely to settle in these eco-sensitive areas. The statement that since the dam  is unsafe, it must be demolished is also fallacious as it doesn’t give attention to the fate that will befall two lakh acres of cultivable land in Tamil Nadu. The article tries to undermine the fact that being a water scarce State with its agriculture crucially dependent on irrigation water, and therefore drought prone, the water issue is a highly emotional issue in Tamil Nadu. If Tamil Nadu farmers and farm workers are dependent on the Kerala market as a dependable and sure outlet for their farm products, Kerala is equally dependent on Tamil Nadu for a significant part of its food requirements. The statement that as the dam is nearing the end of its useful life, it will have to be gradually phased out over a period of time is again bigoted. More than 500 dams in India are too old and have been constructed during the British times and some 115 of them, are more than a century old and all of these dams are still very much in use with the oldest being the Thonnur Tank in Karnataka which dates back to 1000 AD.

It’s clear that there’s a concerted effort on the part of the media, government, politicians and social networks to exaggerate the fears over Mullaperiyar dam. The comparison between Koodankulam  Nuclear power plant issue and Mullaperiyar is totally irrelevant. The tones of all the political parties in Tamil Nadu and Kerala are acrimonious and strident, not giving a very congenial atmosphere for an amicable settlement of the issue. With the Centre’s stoic silence and inaction and failing to rein in Kerala for not honouring the Supreme Court verdict on the Dam issue, the possibility for tri-partite talks is remote and will prove futile. First and foremost, both the Tamils and the Malayalis should stop demonizing each other falling into the traps of politicians with vested interests.    

My Letter to The Hindu dated 04-01-2012

This refers to the report “New dam is the only solution, says Kerala” and the article, “The case for a new Mullaperiyar dam” (Op-ed, Jan. 3). As the owner of Mullaperiyar, Kerala has every right to decide what it wants to do with the dam. But, on the Tamil Nadu side, the issue is the proposed breach of a contract — not the right over the dam and its waters. Under the agreement, Tamil Nadu gets not only water but also the right to operate and maintain the dam. Although Kerala maintains that the quantum of water Tamil Nadu receives will be maintained after a new dam is constructed, there is obviously a trust deficit. Kerala's insistence on a new dam poses a serious threat to inter-State relations, which are already under strain.