Kerala plans to file interlocutory appeal

THRISSUR: Kerala is planning to file an interlocutory application in the Supreme Court requesting a stay on an earlier court order upholding the plea of Tamil Nadu to raise the water level in Mullaperiyar dam to 142 feet.
The water level in the has already reached 138.2 feet on Tuesday and Kerala feels it will go up further soon due to continuous rain.
The proposal to file the interlocutory application was fine tuned after a meeting between Kerala Water Resources Secretary V J Kurien, state Mullaperiyar cell chairman M K Parameswaran Nair, the cell member James Wilson and the state's standing counsel in the Supreme Court Ramesh Babu with the advocate general K P Dandapani in Kochi on Tuesday.
However a final decision will be taken only after discussions with the senior Supreme Court advocates Harish Salwe and Mohan Katarki. Parameswaran Nair and James Wilson will be leaving for Delhi on Wednesday for the talks.
According to official sources, Kerala would be trying to draw the attention of the Supreme Court that one of the 13 shutters of the dam was dysfunctional and
it would not be possible to achieve regulated flow of water from the dam.
Interestingly, the Central Water Commission experts themselves have opined that rules of regulation of shutters proposed by Tamil Nadu was inadequate. As per the proposed rules Tamil Nadu will initiate the procedures for opening the shutters only when the water level in the dam touches 140 feet.
Kerala said it would plead for expediting the consideration of the review petition it had filed earlier by drawing attention to the changed circumstances.
According to reports, Tamil Nadu has again increased the off-take of water from the dam to 1,376 cubic feet per second. But the inflow to the dam is 3,587 cubic feet per second indicating that the mismatch between inflow and off-take of water from the dam continues.
The anxiety of the people downstream is also increasing as the water level rises,
The Mullaperiyar Action council will be meeting on Wednesday to chalk out the future course of action.
The Council chairman Father Joy Nirappel said people downstream are frustrated that the Kerala government had not initiated any measures to contain the possible consequences of a dam-related disaster.
Officials of the state disaster management authority said their hands are tied as the Supreme Court has ordered that the dam was safe even if the water level rises to 142 feet. Within that constraints, we have done what we can do,'' said an authority official.
Revenue minister Adoor Prakash said he and water resources minister P J Joseph would attend the Mullaperiyar advisory committee meeting on Wednesday. The meeting will review the preparedness of the disaster management machinery.