New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday while directing the sub-committee of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) to meet on Friday morning, asked it to take a call whether the water level in the Mullaperiyar dam can be reduced from 142 feet to 139 feet so that people downstream do not live in constant fear.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Indu Malhotra took up the application filed by Russel Joy on an urgent basis asked the committee to assess the dam storage in the context of more water received to the dam than the quantum of water released.
Earlier, the counsel for Tamil Nadu, G. Umapathy, submitted that the present water level is 142 feet. It can only draw 2,300 cusecs (cubic foot per second) of water from the reservoir for irrigation purposes, but the current inflow is more than 20,508 cusecs. The remaining water has to be drained to the larger Idukki reservoir, which is already close to its storage capacity.
The bench, after hearing additional solicitor general P.S. Narasimha for the Centre and counsel Mohan Katarki for Kerala, said it was needless to say that the committee should consider the possibility of reducing the water level to 139 feet.
The panel should also consider a plan of action for release of water and in what manner the plan could be conveyed to the people, it observed.
The ASG informed the court that the NCMC, which met this morning, has been meeting regularly and monitoring the situation on an hourly basis. For proper reservoir management, a committee has been constituted which is chaired by the chairman of Central Water Commission and chief engineers of both the states. The committee is to meet again on Friday to assess the situation.
Taking note of the submissions, the bench in its order further directed that there must be a disaster management plan, which should be implemented forthwith.
It said, “Both Tamil Nadu and Kerala should implement the plan of action forthwith as action speaks much faster than what words can convey.” Appearing for petitioner, counsel Manoj George submitted that the Mullaperiyar dam has 13 shutters, including three old ones. All of them have been opened up to 1.5 metres to drain the excess water. They can be opened up to 16 metres. As much as 10,000 cusecs of water is being released from the Mullaperiyar reservoir to the Idukki reservoir since Wednesday night.
He said authorities have warned that the outflow could be increased to up to 30,000 cusecs, aggravating the unprecedented flood situation in Kerala.
