Supreme Court panel gives Tamil Nadu free hand for 142 feet level

Theni: The Supreme Court appointed supervisory committee chairman L. A. V. Nathanon Monday said that there is no restriction on Tamil Nadu in raising the water level to the full reservoir level of 142 feet.

Inspecting the Mullaiperiyar dam on Monday morning after it touched 142 ft level on November 21, Mr Nathan said, “In our inspection, we find the dam is strong.

There are no issues in the dam even after it stored water level to its capacity of 142 ft. Hence the Tamil Nadu government can store water up to 142 ft at any time.”

The announcement of Mr Natham came at a time when Kerala government has been raising apprehension over stability of 117-year-old dam and wanted its level to be brought down to 136 ft.

With Kerala’s complaint of seepage of water from the Baby dam, the 3-member committee comprising Kerala member V.J. Kurian and Tamil Nadu PWD Secretary M. Saikumar inspected the baby dam.

“There is no seepage in the Baby dam. We have found only moisture which very common,”  Mr Nathan told reporters here.

When asked whether Tamil Nadu could raise the water level to 152 ft, Mr Nathan said that though the dam is strong, the water level could be raised to 152 ft only after the strengthening of the baby dam.

He said that after carrying out strengthening works in the baby dam, an empowered committee of the Centre would inspect it and only based on its recommendation the water level can be raised.

“Our role is limited only to oversee raising of the water level up to 142 ft alone,” he added. The water level in Mullaiperiyar dam stood at 140.90 ft on Monday.