‘Post CISF or TN will use its cops at dam’
CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has ramped up pressure on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over her earlier demand to deploy CISF personnel at the Mullaiperiyar dam, owned by Tamil Nadu, to ensure the security of the structure.
In a letter on Sunday, she categorically told the PM that Tamil Nadu would be left with no other option but to move its own police force to the dam if the Kerala police did not allow repairs to be made ahead of monsoon.
Jayalalithaa’s letter dealt with the filling of eight bore holes made in the dam structure by the SC-appointed Justice AS Anand Committee. The holes had been made by the Committee to assess the strength of the structure, located in Kerala.
Noting that the Committee had given clean chit on the safety of the dam, Jayalalithaa told the Prime Minister in her missive that the Kerala government was preventing Tamil Nadu officials from filling the bore holes.
“The Kerala Government has been preventing the officials of Tamil Nadu from closing these drilled holes in spite of the clear directions given by the Empowered Committee to close the holes. The TN Government has also taken up the matter with the Kerala Government, but to no avail,” the letter read.
She recalled her earlier letter to the PM, asking for the deployment of CISF personnel to guard the dam, and noted that her request was yet to be acceded to. “I, therefore, request you to advise the Government of Kerala not to prevent officials of TN from carrying out the essential work of closing the drilled holes on the Mullaiperiyar Dam,” said the letter.