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Reduce water level in Mullaperiyar to 139 ft, orders SC
Why it is in news?
- The Supreme Court told Tamil Nadu and Kerala that “an effort has to be made to bring the water level [in the Mullaperiya dam] to 139 feet so that people downstream (of the dam) do not live in constant fear”.
- The authorities should notify a disaster management plan to the public in Kerala, “so that people ultimately do not suffer a catastrophe”.
- The Bench, was hearing — on an urgent basis — a petition filed by Russel Joy, a resident in the downstream area of the Mullaperiyar dam in Idukki district of Kerala, highlighting the perils of a dangerously-high water level in the British-era dam, made worse by the utter lack of co-ordination between the two State governments and a non-existent disaster management plan.
- The court asked Kerala and Tamil Nadu to bury the hatchet and work with the Union Cabinet Secretary-led National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) to find a way to reduce the water level in the dam so that the “disaster of floods in Kerala does not turn into a catastrophe.
Kerala’s fears
- Kerala submitted that the water level in the Mullaperiyar dam may have reached 142 feet, the maximum permissible level allowed by the Supreme Court.
- With the flood and rain-related death toll in Kerala nearing 100, release of water by Tamil Nadu from the dam without adequate warning would be devastating for a population already facing an exodus due to the floods, the State said.
Source
The Hindu