NEW DELHI: In a fresh development in the Mullaiperiyar issue, the Supreme Court- appointed Empowered Committee, on Monday, decided to send two experts to the dam site to carry out an on-the-spot assessment.The visit is likely to be in the last week of December. A decision in this regard was taken after the Empowered Committee held discussions with lawyers representing the two states.“Though it was an internal meeting, the committee decided to hear both States, considering the gravity of the issue. The committee is quite perturbed that the Mullaiperiyar issue is snowballing into a bigger controversy even as the matter is before the SC’s consideration,” said a source.The committee will be meeting again on January 2 and 3 to discuss the findings and is expected to submit its report by February.Significantly, the committee has also decided to consider the Roorkee IIT report, which had stated that the Mullaiperiyar Dam was a “high hazard dam” according to the criteria fixed by the Central Water Commission. It had said that the main Mullaperiyar dam and baby dam were likely to suffer a damage in the event of an earthquake. Such a damage may lead to failure of the dam, it had said.At the same time, the Empowered Committee refused to consider experts from IIT Roorkee as witnesses.The five-member empowered committee, headed by former Chief Justice of India AS Anand, met at the Central Water Commission’s office in RK Puram. Besides Anand, the committee has two former Supreme Court judges — K T Thomas representing Kerala and A R Lakshman representing Tamil Nadu —and two former Central Government officials.At the meeting, Kerala submitted a memorandum stating that frequent tremors in Idukki district, where the 116-year-old structure is located, was causing damage to the dam and that the State should be heard before the report is finalised. It demanded that a new dam be constructed to replace the old structure, inorder to prevent a disaster.Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, told the panel there was no need for a new dam and that the water level of the existing dam should be raised from the present 136 feet to 142 feet, as per a 2006 Supreme Court directive.The deadline for the Empowered Panel to submit its final report to the Supreme Court was January. But recently, the apex court extended the panel tenure till February 2012.While the meeting was on, Kerala State Water Resources Minister PJ Joseph sat on a daylong fast in Delhi’s Gandhi Smriti to “pray for change of mind of Tamil Nadu” and to pave the way for a solution to the inter-state dispute.NHRC Defers Hearing The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday deferred till March, hearing on the Mullaiperiyar Dam issue, stating that it will wait till the Supreme Court-appointed empowered committee submits its report.The decision was taken at a meeting of the full commission of the NHRC.The NHRC had, last week, decided to refer the case to the Full Commission following a representation by Kerala MPs, who had requested the Commission to intervene in the issue.
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