Mullaperiyar row | Supreme Court refuses to overhaul court-formed dam supervisory committee
The Hindu
Committee will continue to oversee safety and maintenance till new authority under Dam Safety Act is fully operational
The Supreme Court on Thursday said any “half-baked” arrangement will “destroy the dam” and refused to overhaul the court-formed Mullaperiyar dam supervisory committee, which will continue to oversee the safety and maintenance aspects of the 126-year-old structure until the new authority under the Dam Safety Act, 2021 becomes fully operational in a year.
A Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar will pronounce the order in open court on Friday while indicating that it will go ahead and increase the ambit and power of the supervisory committee. The court said it would add a Technical Member each from Kerala and Tamil Nadu to the panel.
The court, however, disagreed with Kerala’s suggestion to replace the Chairman of the supervisory committee, Gulshan Raj, a Chief Engineer with the Dam Safety Organisation, with the Chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC).
Kerala, represented by senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, said the current supervisory committee Chairman was lower in rank than the Additional Chief Secretaries of the two States who are members of the supervisory panel.
At one time during the hearing, Mr. Gupta even ventured to submit in court that the supervisory committee itself should be changed.
“This is an arrangement that has been going on since 2014... For eight years, there have been no issues except for apprehensions which have to be taken care of. Forming a new committee, an overhaul, would mean the new members would take time to acclimatise to the situation. The existing committee with members who have past experience will come to the rescue of dealing with apprehensions which may come up from time to time. That will be more effective management,” Justice Khanwilkar addressed Mr. Gupta.
The court dissuaded Kerala from engaging in “experiments” when the present arrangement of the supervisory committee was working well.
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