K M Mani sabotaged Meenachil river valley project: NM Joseph

Kottayam: Former forest minister Prof N.M. Joseph has accused Kerala Congress (M) chairman K.M. Mani of sabotaging the alternative scheme proposed by him for realising the Meenachil river valley irrigation project.

Prof Joseph, who was forest minister in the E.K. Nayanar government during 1987-91, levelled the charge in his autobiography ‘Ariyappedatha Edu-kal.’ He was elected from Poonjar as a Janata Dal candidate.

The previous K. Karunakaran government had laid the foundation stone for the project on February 18, 1984, but it never materialised.

Prof Joseph alleges that Mr Mani opposed the alternative project when he was in the opposition saying that he did not want it when another person from Pala was the minister. “He termed my alternative suggestion as ‘against the interests of the country.’ However, he revived my project while he was a minister in the UDF government in 2004,” says Prof. Joseph.

Though the Nayanar government had earmar-ked '1 crore for the initial river valley project, it didn’t get the centre’s nod since the previous government had failed to give proper replies to the que-ries of the central water resources department.

It was found that more investigations were needed for the project after the report was submitted to the Central Water Comm-ission (CWC) in August 1983. After finding the first project impractical, the Nayanar government proposed an alternative project, including the construction of a tunnel  for facilitating the passage of canal water from Moola-mattam to Malankara reg-ion to the Meenachil river so that a more viable place would be chosen at Adu-kkam, Melukavu or Moon-nilavu.

The book says that it was an alternative  project wi-th only an estimated cost of '16.17crore .

According to the first project report, the dam which was scheduled to be constructed at Adukkam in river Theekoy, 9 km from Cherippad, would have 640 metres of length and 75 metres of height. The total estimated cost for the first project as per the report prepared in 1983 was '49.56 crore.

The water resources survey report prepared by the state government in 1958 mentions about the Meen-achil river -based project costing about '3 crore. Its real history started by 1976 when the investigation was completed and it was decided to construct a dam at Cherippad.

The foundation-lone laying for the first project was curious. The stone was positioned at a volleyball court saying that after the ceremony it will be taken away from the place. The stone is now in the irrigation office at Pala. The place where the stone was laid was not even acquired, the book says.

According to the project report, the water would be made available in 9,960 hectares of agricultural land in Meenachil, Kotta-yam and Changanassery taluks in Kottayam district. The immediate regi-ons of the project, including Theekoy and other places, would become a tourist destination even overwhelming Malamp-uzha. As per the estimates till 1989, the first project which reached cost '82 lakh for studies and preparatory works. A sum of '16 lakh was spent for surveys alone.

Prof Joseph, 76, who began his political career as an activist of the Congress party, joined the ‘Organi-sation Congress’ in 1969 and later joined the Janata Party and was an office-bearer of the Janata Dal (S).