The Hindu : `Reconsider supply of waters to Tamil Nadu'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

`Reconsider supply of waters to Tamil Nadu'

By Our Staff Reporter

PALAKKAD, JAN. 17 . The Leader of the Opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan, today urged the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, to reconsider the arrangement to supply water from the Neyyar, Siruvani and Mullaperiyar dams to Tamil Nadu as "our neighbour has been cruel to us by illegally diverting the waters of Malamppuzha and not supplying Kerala's due share from the Parambikulam-Aliyar Project (PAP) at a time when we are reeling under severe drought conditions".

Inaugurating a Collectorate march taken out by farmers and farm workers here, Mr. Achuthanandan said Kerala had been liberal in giving its waters to Tamil Nadu all these years. But, when "we faced acute water scarcity, the Tamil Nadu Government had failed to supply our due share from the inter-State PAP agreement for the last three years. This had resulted in the destruction of paddy cultivation in the Chitturpuzha project area and had led to acute drinking water shortage in Chittur taluk."

As per the agreement, Tamil Nadu should supply 7.25 TMC of water every year for Chitturpuzha. But, this year it had supplied only 2.5 TMC. Tamil Nadu had not released Kerala's due share last year too, he said. Besides, Tamil Nadu was found to have diverted the waters of Onnampuzha that was flowing into the Malampuzha dam. This had resulted in the drying up of the dam, destroying paddy cultivation in 50,000 acres in Palakkad.

"In the case of Neyyar, there is no agreement between the two States. As for Mullaperiyar, the validity of the 999-year agreement is in question. In Siruvani, Kerala had agreed to give the entire 2.5 TMC water for drinking water supply to Coimbatore town while Tamil Nadu agreed to allow Kerala to use 2.5 TMC of water from the Bhavani river. But when Kerala tried to use some waters of the Bhavani as per this agreement, Tamil Nadu objected to it and created hurdles, thereby depriving it of the agreed Bhavani waters too."

"I have written to the Chief Minister requesting him to reveal the proposed PAP agreement renewal clauses and discuss it with the Opposition and others concerned before signing it with Tamil Nadu," Mr. Achuthanandan said.

He demanded that the Government immediately distribute the drought relief assistance of Rs. 6.5 crores announced by the Cabinet sub-committee last week in Palakkad. He said the severe drought conditions had affected 28,000 farmers and 3 lakh agricultural workers in the district.

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