CHENNAI: The Central government has stopped Kerala government from going ahead with building a dam of 4.5 tmcft across Siruvani river for the Attappady Valley Irrigation Project until getting a positive consent for the project from Tamil Nadu government or the references filed in Supreme Court against the order of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal are settled.
“The matter has been examined in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and it has been decided to keep the recommendations by Expert Appraisal Committee, in abeyance, till the references filed in Supreme Court against the order of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal are settled or get a positive consent for the ensuing Project from Government of Tamil Nadu,” a communication from the Centre to Tamil Nadu government said.
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has been taking up this issue time and again with the successive governments at the Centre since 2012.
Writing to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 21, 2012, Jayalalithaa said Kerala’s proposal to construct a dam across Siruvani river for Attapadi Irrigation Scheme is in violation of the final order of the Cauvery Tribunal and urged him to advice Kerala not to proceed with the proposed irrigation scheme or any other scheme on river Siruvani.
The Chief Minister, in her latest letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 26, requested him to withdraw the recommendations made by the Expert Appraisal Committee for River Valley and Hydroelectric Projects of the Ministry of Environment, in its meeting held on August 11 and 12 for grant of Standard Terms of Reference for conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study on the proposal of the Kerala government.
She also pointed out that the Committee had decided to recommend this without obtaining the necessary comments of the Tamil Nadu government in contravention of its own decision in the meeting held on March 28 and 29.