The Tamil Nadu government on Friday, 24 August, rejected Kerala's contention that sudden water released by Tamil Nadu from the Mullaperiyar dam was one of the reasons for the deluge in the neighbouring state.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami said Kerala suffered the deluge due to the discharge of excess water from 80 reservoirs spurred by heavy rains in that state.
The Kerala government had on Thursday, 23 August, filed an affidavit in the Supreme court, saying the sudden release of water from the Mullaperiyar dam by the Tamil Nadu government was one of the reasons for the unprecedented flooding in the state.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, however, told reporters,
It was not just one part of Kerala that was affected due to the floods. It happened because of the discharge of excess water from 80 dams. The (Kerala) government is deliberately giving false information so as not to store water at 152 ft.
Further, water release was not sudden but done only after periodic alerts issued at various levels, he said.
Therefore, I wish to say that filling up of dams in Kerala due to the heavy rains and (discharge) of their excess water resulted in floods.
No Cooperation From Kerala, Says TN Govt
Tamil Nadu in its affidavit added that the flood cushion could not be utilised due to the “obstructionist” attitude and “non cooperation of the state.”
Flood surplus from the Idukki dam is mainly due to the flows generated from its own independent catchment due to unprecedented heavy rainfall while the contribution of Mullaperiyar dam was significantly less.TN government said in an affidavit
“Further, even this small surplus from Mullaperiyar Dam could have been reduced to a major extent, if the state of Kerala had not obstructed to complete the balance strengthening works to restore Tamil Nadu to restore water up to 152 ft,” the affidavit added.
“No Positive Response Received From TN,” Says Kerala Affidavit
Kerala had said that in the wake of prior alerts by its engineers, its Water Resources Secretary had written to her counterpart in the Tamil Nadu government and the Chairman of the Supervisory Committee on Mullaperiyar dam, requesting controlled release of water without waiting for the water in the reservoir to reach full level.
Accordingly, the Tamil Nadu government was requested to gradually release water at least by 139 feet...But no positive assurance in this regard was received from Tamil Nadu even after repeated requests...The Kerala government affidavit said
"But the sudden release from the Mullaperiyar dam, third largest reservoir in the Periyar Basin, forced us to release more water from Idukki reservoir, downstream of Mullaperiyar, which is one of the causes of this deluge," the affidavit added.
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