Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday said its persistent efforts to stop the Kerala government move to build a dam across Siruvani river had succeeded.
The Centre has accepted Tamil Nadu government’s request and kept in abeyance the recommendation of a committee of the Union environment ministry to conduct environmental impact assessment study for building the dam, a Tamil Nadu government release here said.
The Centre had sent a letter accepting the state government’s request, the release said. Quoting the letter, it said “The matter has been examined in the ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Challenge and its has been decided to keep the recommendations by the appraisal committee in abeyance till the references filed in the Supreme Court against the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal are settled or get a positive consent for the ensuing project from Tamil Nadu government”.
The release recalled Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's letter not to approve the recommendation of the expert appraisal committee of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate to grant standard of terms for reference to conduct the study for the project which has no consent from Tamil Nadu and the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.
She had argued that the Siruvani is a tributary of Cauvery, which is an inter-state river and the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal had taken into account the amount of water flowing in Siruvani and Bhavani rivers when calculating the share of water to each state from the Cauvery. Siruvani is a sub-tributary of Cauvery, she noted and said the committee had made its recommendation without obtaining the necessary comments of Tamil Nadu in contravention of its own decision in its meeting on March 28 and 29 this year.
The release also referred the Tamil Nadu Assembly’s resolution two months ago urging the Union government not to approve the grant of permission by the committee for the environment impact assessment study.
The resolution had said “It is regrettable that the Expert Appraisal Committee has considered the subject as an additional agenda item in the meeting and gave the approval in hasty manner. The Assembly also expresses its deep regrets over the committee’s statement that several letters had been sent to Tamil Nadu government and it has not replied to them as the statement was contrary to truth”.
