Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The Tamil Nadu government filed a counter affidavit on Friday in the Supreme Court defending itself against the allegations of the Kerala government who had claimed that the sudden release of water by Tamil Nadu from the Mullaperiyar dam is one of the chief reasons for the flooding of Kerala, reported PTI.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami said that the excess water released from 80 reservoirs in Kerala due to the incessant rainfall led to the deluge in the state.

Tamil Nadu CM told the media, “It was not just one part of Kerala that was affected due to the floods. It happened because of the discharge of excess water from 80 dams. The (Kerala) government is deliberately giving false information so as to not store water at 152 ft.”

He added, “Therefore, I wish to say that filling up of dams in Kerala due to the heavy rains and (discharge) of their excess water resulted in floods.”

Kerala government had earlier filed an affidavit putting the onus on the TN government stating that the sudden discharge of water from the Mullaperiyar dam, which is operated and maintained by Tamil Nadu, was among one of the reasons for the devastating floods in Kerala.

Kerala had said that it has already asked its neighbouring state Tamil Nadu requesting to release the water from the Mullaperiyar dam at a controlled level, before the water level reached its full state.

The Kerala affidavit read, “Accordingly, the Tamil Nadu government was requested to gradually release water at least by 139 feet…But no positive assurance in this regard was received from Tamil Nadu even after repeated requests…” It further said, “But the sudden release from the Mullaperiyar dam, third largest reservoir in the Periyar Basin, forced us to release more water from Idukki reservoir, downstream of Mullaperiyar, which is one of the causes of this deluge.”

Tamil Nadu CM denied the claims of Kerala, saying that the water released from the Mullaperiyar dam was not “sudden and that periodic alerts were issued at 139 ft, 141 ft and 142 ft”, reported PTI.

By isha

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