Mullaperiyar dam: Kerala Govt moves SC against TN to not release huge quantity of water in wee hours

The Kerala government has approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction to Tamil Nadu not to release a vast quantity of water in the wee hours from the 126-year-old Mullaperiyar dam.

Kerala government also sought direction from the Tamil Nadu government to control the water level by releasing water from the dam throughout the day instead of releasing a huge quantity of water at the wee hours without giving sufficient warning time.

Releasing a huge quantity of water causes heavy damage to the people living downstream of the dam, the application of the Kerala government added.

"Due to the erratic release of the heavy volume of water, that too without any intimation during the wee hours of the day for the last more than one week created heavy damage to the people and their property who are living in the downstream of the Mullaperiyar dam," stated the application.

It added that from the last week of November onwards, the catchment area of the Mullaperiyar dam and the places in and around Idukki district experienced heavy rainfall which resulted in the increase of water level of the dam.

The application further stated that the top court had on October 28 ordered that for the time being, Kerala and Tamil Nadu to abide by the decision taken by the Supervisory Committee regarding the appropriate water level in the Mullaperiyar dam.

Supervisory Committee had recommended maintaining the Mullaperiyar dam water level at 139.5 feet.

The Bench said "it has been agreed that parties, for the time being, will abide by the water level suggested by the Supervisory Committee. It will be open to the committee to review its decision on an hourly basis."

Supervisory Committee had informed the Court that there was no requirement to change the water level, which was then at 137 feet.

Earlier, Kerala based parties had moved the apex court seeking urgent directions to restrict the water level in the 126-year-old Mullaperiyar dam, which is being managed by Tamil Nadu for drawing water to its districts.

Idukki resident Dr Joe Joseph and office-bearers of the Kothamangalam block panchayat in Kerala had expressed their apprehensions about the supervision of water levels in the Mullaperiyar dam located along the Periyar tiger reserve, especially during the rainy season.

A Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar is scheduled to hear the case on Friday.

( With inputs from ANI )