TN rejects Kerala contention that Mullaperiyar dam water release caused floods

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami said Kerala suffered the deluge due to the discharge of excess water from 80 reservoirs spurred by heavy rains in that state.

The Kerala government had yesterday filed an affidavit in the Supreme court, saying the sudden release of water from the Mullaperiyar dam by the Tamil Nadu government was one of the reasons for the unprecedented flooding in the state.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, however, told reporters today, "It was not just one part of Kerala that was affected due to the floods. It happened because of the discharge of excess water from 80 dams. The (Kerala) government is deliberately giving false information so as to not store water at 152 ft."

The dam is operated and maintained by Tamil Nadu.

Further, water release was not sudden but done only after periodic alerts issued at various levels, he said. "Therefore, I wish to say that filling up of dams in Kerala due to the heavy rains and (discharge) of their excess water resulted in floods."

The dam's safety has been a bone of contention between Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

In a May 2014 verdict, a five-judge Constitution bench of the apex court had held that the Mullaperiyar dam was safe, and allowed Tamil Nadu to raise the water level up to 142 feet from 136 ft and and ultimately to 152 feet after the completion of strengthening measures on the reservoir.

The Kerala government affidavit also said that out of a total population of about 3.48 crore, more than 54 lakh (or one-sixth of the population of Kerala) had been directly affected by the floods.

Kerala had said that in the wake of prior alerts by its engineers, its Water Resources Secretary had written to her counterpart in the Tamil Nadu government and the Chairman of the Supervisory Committee on Mullaperiyar dam, requesting controlled release of water without waiting for the water in the reservoir to reach full level.