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Jaya greets PM with no new dam for Kerala demand
No new dam for Kerala on Mullaperiyar —this was on top of Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s wishlist when she met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Sunday.
No new dam for Kerala on Mullaperiyar —this was on top of Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s wishlist when she met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Sunday.
The Prime Minister is on a two-day visit to the southern state — his first since she came to power in May.
Among a host of other demands, the 18-page memorandum Jayalalithaa submitted to Singh also sought a financial package for the state. But there was no word on the Kudankulam nuclear power project — which, along with the Mullaperiyar issue, was high on the Prime Minister’s agenda.
The chief minister asked Singh to advise the Kerala government to honour the 2006 Supreme Court order allowing Tamil Nadu to raise the water level in the reservoir from 136ft to 142ft and demanded that the Central Industrial Security Force be deployed to safeguard it.
Jayalalithaa also reiterated her opposition to the National Disaster Management Authority's plan to form a team to prepare a contingency response for the dam.
She said the formation of the team was “unwarranted” when the Supreme Court-appointed expert committee was reviewing the safety issue.
