Janjivan Bureau
CHENNAI: Terming the proposal of Kerala government’s proposal for conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study for construction of a new Mullai Periyar dam in Idukki district is in utter violation of the Supreme Court order, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to instruct the Union Environment and Forests Ministry to negative Kerala’s proposal and return it to that State.
In this connection, the Chief Minister referred to the reports that the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Government of India, had, in a meeting, examined the terms of reference suggested by the Kerala government for conducting an EIA study for construction of a new Mullai Periyar dam.
Though the Environment Ministry had clarified that no approval had been granted for carrying out EIA study for construction of a new Mullai Periyar dam, the Chief Minister pointed out that the very fact of entertaining Kerala’s request and considering the same was itself a gross violation of the Decree and Order of the SC dated May 7, 2014. “In fact, the Centre should have desisted from entertaining and considering the proposal and ought to have remitted the proposal back to Kerala government”, she added.
Jayalalithaa observed that the SC had already held that the existing Mullai Periyar dam was structurally, hydrologically and seismically safe and had negatived in unequivocal terms, the offer of Kerala for the construction of a new dam. Also, the review petition filed by Kerala against the Decree had been dismissed on December 2, 2014. “Therefore, when a finality has been reached in the Mullai Periyar dam issue, the Kerala government is seeking to subvert the Order of the SC by stealth, seeking approval of the terms of reference to conduct an EIA study for construction of a new dam”, she added.