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Kerala politicians privately agreed Mullaperiyar dam was safe: KT Thomas

  • Prominent leaders agreed to his opinion that the dam was safe
  • Oommen Chandy said demanding half the energy generated from the dam will even endanger his ministry
  • NK Premachandran said the state wants to cancel the agreement of 1886
Kerala politicians agreed that Mullaperiyar dam was safe

In an article written in the ecumenical magazine New Vision, KT Thomas, Kerala's representative in the Empowered Committee on Mullaperiyar and former Supreme Court Judge, said the politicians of the state privately agreed with his opinion that the dam was safe. In the article I am giving importance to what can be done on the issue," he told Asianet Newsable. 

 

Thomas said PJ Joseph, the water resources minister in the Oommen Chandy ministry, was the first to congratulate him as soon as the report of empowered committee was out that the dam was perfectly safe. Joseph, who called over the phone, was all praise for him and his stance and said that only Thomas could take such a position, he said. 

 

Ramesh Chennithala, the then Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president and the then Electricity and Transport Minister Aryadan Muhammed also rang him up and lauded him for the report. They specifically pointed to his opinion to fix the water level at 136 feet and praised him saying that no one else had ever given such strong reasons to support that view. 

 

He claims that former minister NK Premachandran also agreed with his stance that the dam was safe and aired. However, Premachandran also said that it is necessary to cancel the 1886 agreement so that the maintenance and management of the dam will be with the state.

 

Former Justice said that the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy expressed his helplessness when he was informed that state would get 50% of electricity generated from the dam. "Agreeing to get half the electricity generated from the dam will endanger the ministry itself. Such a move will be treated as Kerala accepting the claim of Tamil Nadu that the dam is safe," Thomas claims Chandy to have told him. 

 

Thomas is of the opinion that the state must agree with the Supreme Court finding that the dam is safe. The court had said that the reinforcement works carried out from 1979 onwards in three stages, have strengthened the dam, Thomas said. 

 

Mullaperiyar Protection Council must not spread terror among the locals. Measures must be adopted to fix the water limit at 136 feet and to get 50% of electricity generated from the dam.  

 

Thomas ends his article by expressing a hope that current Chief Minister, who is practical and has a sense of reality, will take measures to ensure the same.

 

Though the state government had spent almost Rs7.6 crore and assigned eminent lawyers to present its case before the apex court, the Constitution which heard the arguments were not convinced by its arguments. 

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