The Hindu : PAP pact: `Minister has betrayed House'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

PAP pact: `Minister has betrayed House'

By Our Staff Reporter

PALAKKAD, FEB. 17. The former member of the ad hoc committee of the Kerala Assembly on Parambikulam-Mullaperiyar Agreements, K. Krishnankutty, has demanded the resignation of the Water Resources Minister, T. M. Jacob, for allegedly violating the recommendations of the Assembly on the renewal of the Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) agreement.

At a press conference here today, Mr. Krishnankutty, secretary-general of the Janata Dal, demanded action against three officials who were members of the Inter-State

Technical Committee on the PAP agreement for signing agreements. The members of the committee are T.K. Sasi, chief engineer, Rajagopal, superintending engineer and Abdulla, member, Kerala State Electricity Board.

Mr. Krishnankutty alleged that the Minister and the three officials had also violated the privilege of the Assembly by entering an agreement against its recommendations with another State.

He said that the ad hoc committee of the Assembly, then headed by T.M. Jacob as Minister in 1994, had made 20 recommendations that were accepted by the Assembly. But now Mr. Jacob had violated his own committee's recommendations and entered into an agreement with Tamil Nadu by agreeing to divert the waters of the Anamalayar and the Nirar.

The supplementary memorandum wanted to drop the sharing of the Anamalayar water proposal from the PAP agreement. The Assembly committee in its recommendation had also asked the Government to take steps to drop the proposal of the Anamalayar water from the PAP agreement. But now the technical committee has agreed for construction of the Anamalayar reservoir, so that its waters could be diverted by Tamil Nadu.

The Assembly recommended steps to revise the agreement so that the water from the Upper Nirar was available for Kerala from August 1 to January 31. But in the committee report, it is restricted to four months and allows Tamil Nadu to take away the rest of the water, he said.

He said that the committee had agreed to allow Tamil Nadu to build a weir at Manacadavu. This would deprive Kerala of 18.5 TMC of floodwaters flowing into the Bharathapuzha. Kerala had asked for just 12.5 TMC of water out of a total yield of 31 TMC at the Manacadavu weir. For this weir, Tamil Nadu had to spend a huge amount of Rs.450 crores, he alleged.

He said that no agreement could be entered on water sharing without passing it in the Assembly. Clause 30 of the Kerala Irrigation and Water Conservation Act says that, ``No water from a water course in the State shall be distributed to any other State or Union territory, except in accordance with an agreement between the State Government and the Government of such other State or Union territory in terms of a resolution to that effect passed by the Legislative Assembly of the State.''

There are moves to sign the new PAP agreement with Tamil Nadu without discussing it in the Assembly, Mr. Krishnankutty alleged.

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