Mullaperiyar Issue: Conference inconclusive

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 3. The deliberations at a high-level conference, convened at the Secretariat on Monday to decide on the strategy to be adopted during the scheduled talks between Kerala and Tamil Nadu Governments at the Chief Ministers' level on April 5, was inconclusive.

The conference was attended by the Irrigation Minister, Mr. V. P. Ramakrishna Pillai, the Minister for Revenue, Mr. K. E. Ismail, the Law Minister, Mr. E. Chandrasekharan Nair, the Chief Secretary, Mr. M. Mohan Kumar, and higher officials. The Finance Minister, Mr. T. Sivadasa Menon, who was one of the members of the Cabinet Sub-Committee formed for Ministerial-level discussions earlier, was not present.

The members of the sub-committee and the officials would brief the Chief Minister, Mr. E. K. Nayanar, on Tuesday. The Chief Minister's speech for the occasion and other details would be finalised only after that.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, is expected to reach here in the morning of April 5 by a special plane. The talks would be held at Kovalam near here. The main topic of discussion would be Tamil Nadu's demand to raise the maximum water level of the Mullaperiyar reservoir.

Meanwhile, the Congress(I) Deputy Leader in the Assembly, Mr. G. Karthikeyan, expressed his objection to the sidelining of Opposition parties from the purview of the river water parleys.

Mr. Karthikeyan said it was unfortunate and anti-democratic move on the part of the State Government not to have consulted the Opposition parties. He alleged that the Government was groping in the dark on how to handle the various problems and it was imperative that the State Government's stand should get the backing of all sections concerned, without any political reservations, he said.

Mr. Karthikeyan urged the Government not to concede the Tamil Nadu request to raise the Mullaperiyar dam height from its present 136 feet.

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