New Delhi: The Supreme Court-appointed Empowered Committee on Mullaiperiyar dam on Tuesday rejected Kerala's demand to reduce the water-level to 120 feet in the disputed structure.
The committee took this stand on the water-level, citing the recent Supreme Court order, which had ordered a status quo on the current level of 136 feet.
Kerala had appealed to the Empowered Committee that the water-level be reduced to 120 feet to ensure that safety was not compromised as the dam is in a seismic zone.
At the same time, the Empowered Committee has decided to ask the Geological Survey of India to give a detailed report on earthquake possibilities in the dam area within one month.
The Committee took this decision following repeated pleas from Kerala that the frequent tremors could result in the collapse of the dam and could pose a threat to the lives of lakhs of people living in districts around it.
The committee on Tuesday also discussed the report submitted by the two members of their team who had made a visit to the dam site last month. The two technical experts—C D Thatte and D K Mehta—had submitted their report on Monday.
It is learnt that the report has ruled out any damage to the dam structure due to the recent earthquakes in the region. Kerala had been anchoring its demand for a new dam on the frequent tremors experienced in the dam area. According to the two experts who had visited the site, the tremors have not affected the dam in any way.
The report, according to sources, has, however, blamed Tamil Nadu for not carrying out maintenance work as directed by the Supreme Court. The two experts had visited the dam site in December after Kerala had repeatedly expressed fears in the wake of recent tremors in the area.
Kerala had on Monday claimed that the report by the two-member expert panel was biased and opposed its consideration by the five-member committee.
The five member Empowered Committee will be meeting again on January 24 and 25 to finalise its report, which will be submitted to the Supreme Court in February.
The Empowered Committee under the chairmanship of former Chief Justice of India AS Anand was set up in 2010 with the mandate of examining all aspects of the dispute over the dam between the two states.
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