KOCHI: Kerala on Saturday boycotted the Supreme Court-appointed Empowered Panel’s inspection of the Mullperiyar dam. The officials from Kerala, accompanying the central team, decided to boycott the inspection alleging that the committee members were not addressing the grievances of the state. The state officials said that the members of the panel were acting as consultants to Tamil Nadu rather than being impartial.“The members were very critical of Kerala while being generous to Tamil Nadu,” they said.The panel, consisting of C D Thatte and D K Mehta, were giving instructions to Tamil Nadu on the rectification works to be conducted on the dam when there was a SC instruction to maintain the status quo, state officials alleged. “When the officials from Kerala objected to the panel’s directions to Tamil Nadu, the members became angry,” they said.The two-member Empowered Committee were to be accompanied by officials from both Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Mullaperiyar Cell chairman M K Parameswaran Nair, Irrigation Department chief engineers P Lathika and James Wilson were part of the Kerala officials while R Subramanyam of the Cauvery Cell and chief engineer Rajagopal represented Tamil Nadu.The panel members had visited Idukki dam and adjacent reservoirs the other day to study the maintenance of reservoirs, need for repair work and the capacity of the Idukki dam, in particular, to hold water from Mullaperiyar in case of a dam burst. The visit comes in the wake of widespread rumours expressed over the safety of the 116-year old dam.
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