New Delhi: The sudden opening of the sluice gates of the Mullaperiyar dam by the Tamil Nadu government was one of the reasons for the disastrous floods in Kerala, the state government told the Supreme Court in an affidavit. The Kerala chief secretary has said that the Tamil Nadu authorities had been asked to release water from the dam as soon as water level reached 139 feet.

The Tamil Nadu authorities, entitled to open the contentious reservoir, did not open the gates until the water level reached the upper limit of 142 feet. The simultaneous opening of the 13 shutters contributed to the flood downstream, the affidavit read.

The Pinarayi Vijayan government said that in the wake of prior alerts by its engineers, Kerala's water resources secretary had written to her counterpart in Tamil Nadu government and the chairman of the Supervisory Committee on Mullaperiyar dam, requesting controlled release of water without waiting for the water level in the reservoir to reach its full level.

"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..."

"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," the affidavit said.

The affidavit was filed in pursuance to August 18 direction of the apex court which had asked the Kerala chief secretary to show the steps they have been taken to meet the needs of disaster management, rescue operations and rehabilitation. Kerala resident Russel Roy had filed a plea seeking, among other things, a direction to Tamil Nadu to manage the water level in the dam. The top court had earlier ordered the disaster management panel of the Mullaperiyar dam to urgently decide on lowering the water level.

Mismanagement of dams?

The Kerala government and the Kerala State Electricity Board had come under criticism from several quarters that the mismanagement of dams had led to the worst floods in a century. In the affidavit before the Supreme Court, the chief secretary has called for the formation of a high-level committee to ensure that such a tragedy did not recur.

Meanwhile, electricity minister M M Mani said that the state-owned power utility was not to blame for the tragedy. “The KSEB has not done anything contrary to the government plan. Everything has been documented.”

He rubbished opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala’s allegation that the flood was a man-made disaster. He said that the Congress leader was in the know of things and he was out to score brownie points.

Chennithala had said that the simultaneous release of water from the dams aggravated the situation. He also said that opening of the Sabarigiri and Banasura Sagar dams were not preceded by adequate alerts.

While the dam safety authority insisted that the dams under the KSEB were opened only after adhering to the protocol but the chief secretary admitted that there were lapses by the administration while opening the Banasura Sagar dam in Wayanad.

Several reservoirs were opened across Kerala between August 15 and 17. Major dams such as Idukki and Idamalayar could have been opened much before the rain started inundating the plains downstream, the government’s detractors said.

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