THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan on Wednesday said that the Supreme Court directive to the Centre to implement the river linking project was detrimental to the state’s interests. ‘’If the water in Pampa and Achankovil rivers is diverted to Vypar as proposed in the project, the ecological system of central Travancore would be destroyed,’’ he told reporters here on Wednesday.
Achuthanandan said that if the proposal was implemented, it would seriously affect agriculture in Kuttanad and sound the death-knell for Vembanad Lake. Studies by national and international experts on river-linking in Kerala had clearly said that it would amount to ‘killing’ the state, he said.
He alleged that Water Resources Minister P J Joseph had not understood the gravity of the issue.
The State Government is showing utter disregard to the issue as is evident from the vague statement of Law Minister K M Mani that the Supreme Court directive would not affect the state, Achuthanandan said.
Achuthanandan claimed that the Centre had included Pampa-Achankovil project among the 30 river-linking projects proposed.
The National Water Development Agency had suggested that the direction of Pampa-Achankovil rivers be diverted by linking them, he said. The Supreme Court, in its order, had also asked the states to co-operate with the project.
The Opposition Leader urged the government to explore the possibility of filing a review petition in the Supreme Court on the matter and requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene in the issue.