Tamil Nadu engineers walk out of sub-committee inspection of Mullaperiyar dam
The Hindu
Tamil Nadu engineers protest Kerala's denial of maintenance work at Mullaiperiyar dam, disrupting scheduled inspection.
The sub-committee on Mullaperiyar dam could not carry out a scheduled inspection of the structure on Wednesday (October 16, 2024), as the Tamil Nadu Water Resources Organisation (WRO) engineers walked out in protest against the Kerala Minor Irrigation (MI) Division for not allowing maintenance work at the dam site for six months.
The sub-committee is headed by its Chairman and Executive Engineer, Central Water Commission, Kochi, B. Satheesh. It includes two members from Tamil Nadu - J. Sam Erwin, Executive Engineer, Additional Charge, Periyar Dam Special Division (PDSD), and T. Kumar, Assistant Executive Engineer, PDSD. Members from Kerala, Levins Babu Kottur, Executive Engineer, MI Division, Kattapanai and Kirandas, Assistant Executive Engineer, MI Division were also present. They had assembled to leave for the dam site for quarterly inspection on Wednesday morning.
However, before leaving for the site, Tamil Nadu members raised the issue of Kerala not granting permission for the maintenance work.
When the Kerala official said that he had to get permission from higher officials from the Kerala government, the WRO engineers objected to it. They walked out of the inspection to draw attention of the National Dam Safety Authority to the “lackadaisical attitude” of the Kerala government, a WRO engineer told The Hindu.
In May, WRO engineers had sought permission from the Executive Engineer (MI) for carrying out 13 specific tasks in the dam, related to the surplus regulator, main dam, gallery and earthen dam. The engineers had planned to complete the work before the onset of northeast monsoon, the engineer said.
Also Read:Why is there a fresh row on Mullaperiyar? | Explained
The details of the maintenance work were provided to the Kerala engineers. An in-person explanation was also given to them.
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