MADURAI: Farmers, farm labourers, workers and members of various Tamil nationalist parties and a few Dalit organisations came together here on Wednesday to protest against the decision of the Central Government to allow a survey for the construction of a new dam across the Mullaperiyar.
P. Maniarasan, general secretary, Tamil Desa Podhuvudamai Katchi, said that at a time when the Supreme Court had issued an order allowing the water level of the dam to be raised from the present 136 feet to 142 feet, the Kerala Government had not implemented it. This being the case, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had given “clearance” to conduct a survey for the construction of a new dam. This decision by the Centre was “highly condemnable,” he said.
The effort was nothing but an attempt to see an involuntary lapse of the 999-year lease agreement signed during the British rule, in which the operating rights of the dam were given to the State of Tamil Nadu. Those who participated in the demonstration alleged that the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest Jairam Ramesh’s decision to allow a survey and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s silence on the issue would be detrimental not only to farmers of five southern districts but also would result in scarcity of drinking water.
Leaders of various agriculture and allied activity organisations claimed that as part of the protest they had planned to impede the movement of vehicles carrying food items and other essentials to Kerala.
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