CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday rejected the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's demand to lower the storage level of Mullaperiyar dam to 139 ft from 142ft.
Palaniswami charged that Kerala was not permitting Tamil Nadu officials to gauge the rainfall in the catchment area and Tamil Nadu officials were compelled to assess the inflow only based on the actual rate of rise in water level in the dam.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister has also requested his Kerala counterpart to inform his officials to share the rainfall data in the catchment of Mullaiperiyar dam with Tamil Nadu officials on a real time basis.
"The dam is safe and Tamil Nadu government is maintaining the releases through the spillways so as not to exceed the permitted water storage level at 142 feet," Palaniswami said responding the letter of Vijayan dated August 15, after chairing a high-level meeting at the secretariat.
He said the Supreme Court (SC) appointed supervisory committee had been inspecting the dam periodically and in the last inspection carried out on August 4, the committee found that the dam was safe to store water up to 142 ft.
"Therefore, there is no threat to the safety of the dam and water is being stored at the permitted level of 142 feet as per the orders of the SC," he added.
"Mullaiperiyar dam is safe in all respects viz., hydrologically, seismically and structurally as per the SC order dated May 7, 2014. During the past, the dam was inspected by many experts on several occasions and they had also found that the dam is safe in all aspects.
The chairman, sub-committee of Mullai Periyar dam during the inspection on August 15 has found that the Digital Water Level Recorder is functioning well. In addition, there are several gauge plates installed to ascertain the water level of the Dam," Palaniswami pointed out.
The chief minister also said water had been transferred from Mullaiperiyar dam to Vaigai basin to the maximum extent possible through the tunnel. When the inflows started to increase in the dam, there had been continuous co-ordination between the engineers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and the respective district collectors.
Palaniswami said the Water Resources Department of Tamil Nadu had been maintaining the releases through the spillways so as not to exceed the permitted water storage level at 142 feet duly giving periodical warnings to all concerned in Kerala.
Drawing the attention of Kerala chief minister to the issue of restoration of power supply to Mullaiperiyar dam and its appurtenant structures, Palaniswami recalled that as agreed to by Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Rs.1.65 crore had been deposited by Tamil Nadu with the Kerala State Electricity Board to restore the power supply.
Stating that the Tamil Nadu government had been in constant touch with the Kerala government and the Kerala State Electricity Board for restoring the power supply to the dam, but of no avail.
"I would request you to kindly issue instructions to the authorities concerned to take immediate steps to restore the power supply to the dam and its appurtenant structures," he added.