There's a pressing need to nationalise rivers in the subcontinent before we perish.
Early this week, when the shutters of Aliyar Dam in Tamil Nadu were raised, there was a major protest demonstration by the people of Palakkad in Kerala. The water level in Kannadipuzha flowing from Tamil Nadu to Kerala rose to an alarming level and put the lives of thousands of people staying along the banks of the river in danger. The proactive media in both the States conveniently blacked out the report. The shutters of Aliyar Dam were opened by the Tamil Nadu Government to save the lives of its people along this river. The concern of the TN Government to save the lives of its people from the impending disaster is understandable. But the DMK Government should show the same concern for the lives of more than four million people in Kerala who stay along the banks of Mullaperiyar Dam which may burst any time once the water level in this largest and oldest gravity dam in the country crosses the 138-ft mark. As pointed out by this newspaper in a report, the Mullaperiyar Dam is a water bomb ticking by the second and the possibility of a major disaster stares the people of four Kerala districts in the face. The 140-year-old dam has outlived its utility and age has caught up with it.
It is time to decommission this dam and build a new one, as suggested by the Kerala Government. But, strangely, Tamil Nadu vehemently opposes this idea. Geologists have warned time and again that the region around Mullaperiyar Dam is “pregnant with earthquakes”. While Tamil Nadu turns a blind eye towards this warning, the State's politicians are highly critical of the Centre's move to build the Indian Neutrino Observatory in the region and cite studies by geologists to oppose the proposed research laboratory. Aren’t these double standards exposing Tamil Nadu’s ‘Heads I win, Tails You Lose’ attitude? Tamil Nadu’s opposition to the Karnataka Government’s move to build the Mekedatu Dam across the Cauvery river is the same. Karnataka has the right to build a dam on its own land and there are no laws restraining it. The Mullaperiyar Dam agreement has inherent weaknesses in it. The Union Government and the Supreme Court should not take recourse in the apology that “though laws are there, public resentment has to be taken into consideration”. It is time rivers in the subcontinent are nationalised and people — irrespective of region, religion, caste and community — get justice equally.
