The Supreme Court on Friday said it would hear on December 15 the petitions which have raised issues related to the 126-year-old Mullaperiyar dam.
The pleas raising issues about the dam, which was built in 1895 on the Periyar river in Idukki district of Kerala, came up for hearing before a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar.
One of the lawyers appearing in the case told the bench that some fresh applications have been filed and the matter may be taken up for hearing next Tuesday or Wednesday.
The bench, while posting the matter for hearing on December 15, said the parties can file a response to the fresh applications.
The Kerala government has recently filed an application in the top court seeking a direction to the state of Tamil Nadu not to release a huge quantity of water in the wee hours from the dam, saying it causes heavy damage to the people living downstream of the dam.
In an application filed through advocate G Prakash, the Kerala government has also sought a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to control the water level by releasing water from the dam throughout the day instead of releasing a huge quantity of water at the wee hours without giving sufficient warning time.
The application has said that a 'joint technical on-site committee for spillway release,' comprising of two members each from the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, be constituted to decide on the quantity and time of surplus discharge through spillway shutters to Kerala.
It has further said it should also be ensured that only based on the recommendation of the joint technical on-site committee, the surplus to Kerala would be effected with sufficient warning time to the district disaster management authority.
“Due to the erratic release of the heavy volume of water, that too without any intimation during the wee hours of the day for the last more than one week created heavy damage to the people and their property who are living in the downstream of the Mullaperiyar dam,” the application has said.
It has said that the apex court had on October 28 ordered that for the time being, the parties would abide by the water level notified by the expert committee.
The application said that from the last week of November onward, the catchment area of the Mullaperiyar dam and the places in and around the Idukki district experienced heavy rainfall which increased the water level of the dam.
The Kerala government had earlier told the apex court that 'no amount of rejuvenation' can perpetuate the dam and there is a limit to the number of years one can keep dams in service through maintenance and strengthening measures.
It had said the only permanent solution for removing the 'eternal threat owing to the safety concerns' of the dam and for protecting the safety of lakhs of people living the downstream of Mullaperiyar dam is to build a new dam in the downstream reaches of the existing dam.
In an affidavit filed before the apex court, the Kerala government had urged that the proposal to fix the upper rule level of Mullaperiyar dam at 142 feet on September 20 as formulated by Tamil Nadu may be avoided.
In its response to the affidavit filed by Kerala, the state of Tamil Nadu had said that 'repeated assertion' of Kerala and petitioners from there in the pleas filed from time-to-time seek to decommission of the existing dam and construction of a new dam, which is 'wholly impermissible' in the light of the apex court verdict on the safety of the dam.
"The dam has been found to be hydrologically, structurally, and seismically safe,” Tamil Nadu had said.
The Tamil Nadu government had also told the apex court that 'repeated assertion' by Kerala to seek decommissioning of the dam is 'wholly impermissible' as the dam is hydrologically, structurally, and seismically safe.
