Minister warns of legal action against T.N.

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 23. Kerala is planning to take legal action against Tamil Nadu for the violation of the Parambikulam- Aliyar agreement.

The Finance Minister, Mr. K. Sankaranarayanan, who was deputising for the Chief Minister, said in reply to a submission by Mr. K. A. Chandran (Congress) in the Assembly today that the legal measures which the Government proposed to take included arbitration. He stated that it was being done to protect Kerala's interests, get the water which the State was eligible for and enforce its rights.

The Government proposed to hold talks simultaneously with its Tamil Nadu counterpart on the provisions of the agreement. He said that there was no provision for renewing the agreement which was signed on September 25, 1970 with retrospective effect from 1958. But there was provision for reviewing it once in 30 years.

As part of it, Kerala had submitted a memorandum containing its demands at the minister-level talks held between the two States in Thiruvananthapuram on September 21, 1989. Kerala gave a supplementary memorandum to Tamil Nadu at the next round of talks which were held in Chennai on November 5, 1992.

The memoranda contained proposals for increasing the water supply to Kerala on the basis of the water availability during the ten years after the signing of the agreement in 1970.

During this period, the Assembly constituted an ad hoc committee to advise the Government on the provisions of the agreement. The Committee in its report pointed out mainly six violations of the agreement. Tamil Nadu, however, refuted it.

The Government also set up a committee to study the issues which should be raised at the inter-State river water talks and prepare the agenda.

Even though the agenda prepared by it on projects, including the PAP, was submitted for discussions at the minister-level talks held on August 13, 1998 and April 4, 2000, only the Mullaperiyar issue was discussed.

Amidst this, Kerala received reports of the continuous violation of the PAP agreement by Tamil Nadu. All these were brought to Tamil Nadu's attention. But Tamil Nadu adopted the stand that they were all in order.

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Section  : Southern States
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