Assembly Passes Motion Appealing For Reference Of Mullaperiyar Issue To SC The state legislature assembly passed a substantive motion urging the President of India to refer the Mullaperiyar issue to the Supreme Court and reconsider the decision of increasing the height of the dam as it poses a threat to the lives of 40 lakh people residing below the dam. The resolution was passed after a detailed discussion in the assembly on Monday in which MLAs from both LDF and UDF expressed their concerns on the recent Supreme Court order The apex court order had not only allowed Tamil Nadu to increase the height of the water level in the dam from 136 feet to 142 feet, but even rejected the state’s plea to construct a new dam. The state’s resolution said that the dam was 119 years old and it needs to be decommissioned. “By constructing a new dam we can provide water for Tamil Nadu and security for Kerala. Even the Central Water Commission in 1979 had recommended that a new dam be constructed and both the states should come together to look for a suitable area for the dam,“ the res olution said. Chief minister Oommen Chandy said that if the water level in the dam is increased, thousands of acres of rich biodiversity, which is part of the Periyar tiger reserve, would be submerged, in violation of the Forest Wild Life Act. The CM said the state plans to file a review petition on the issue and senior Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve will represent for the state. “None of the issues pointed out by Kerala was resolved by the Supreme Court order and this is very unfortunate,” Chandy said. He said that the lease agreement for 999 year for the dam should be scrapped as the dam is degenerating rapidly. “By increasing the water level in the dam, the safety of the dam would be compromised. In fact, Tamil Nadu received 31.21 TMC as compared to 25.46 TMC when the height was at 142 feet,” he said. The CM denied charges by opposition that the advocate general had given an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that Idukki dam has enough capacity to hold water even is the Mullaperiyar dam gives way. “The lease agreement was signed before the Indian Independence Act came into effect. The Supreme Court rejected the state’s plea to scrap the agreement stating that all political agreements were valid. But the Mullaperiyar agreement is a lease agreement and not a political agreement,” he said. Chandy said that the Tamil Nadu’s position that the Periyar River is an interstate river is not based on facts as the Periyar begins from Kerala and ends in the Arabian Sea along the Kerala coast. “Only water in the 300 acre of the reservoir flows through Tamil Nadu,” he said.