As tension escalated on the inter-state border town of Kumily over the Mullaperiyar dam issue, protestors on the Tamil Nadu side on Sunday threw slippers at Finance Minister O Panneerselvam and gheraoed him.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Sunday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to advise Kerala not to build a new dam across Mullaperiyar and sought a financial package for the state.
The Tamil Nadu government banned Dam 999, claiming that the film was about the contentious issue of Mullaperiyar dam and delivered a message in favour of Kerala.
Seeking the Centre's "hand of friendship" in solving inter-state water disputes, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has said his party's alliance with the Congress was for national integrity and harmony.
The decision to suspend the operations was taken after shutters of the Idamalayar and Cheruthoni dams, part of Idukki reservoir, were opened on Tuesday evening to release excess water.
Claims over leadership became the focal point at the former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa's death anniversary event held in Chennai on Sunday with the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu, led by O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami, asserting that it is a 'fortress' that cannot be shaken by anyone.
He appealed to Kerala to extend cooperation to store full water in the Mullaiperiyar dam.
The talks are scheduled to be in New Delhi on November 29.
Amid the opposition UDF's sloganeering against him, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Friday delivered the customary address to the assembly with the policy document outlining the Left government's administrative achievements and criticising the Centre for allegedly pushing the state to financial constraints by reducing its resource allocations.
Given the intensity of the rain, at least a third of this crisis could have been averted, had Tamil Nadu heeded Kerala's requests.
Locked in a bitter row with Tamil Nadu on the Mullaperiar Dam issue, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday maintained that the safety of the century-old dam was a "concern" for his state and that a new structure was a solution "where both sides win."
The Hindutva social media continues to present the DMK especially as anti-god, anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin. The strategy did not work in the past, it has not worked in the present, and would not work in the future, as a massive vote-getter, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Members of Legislative Assembly, including M K Stalin, the leader of its Legislature Wing, were on Monday suspended for two days from the Tamil Nadu Assembly for unruly behaviour in the House. Stalin and party MLAs Govi Chezhiyan, Thangam Thennarasu and Moideen Khan had to be physically removed by Marshals after they squatted in front of the Chair of Speaker P Dhanapal.
Jawan of Vellimala has echoes of the Mullaperiyar dam controversy; here, unfortunately, the conspiracy theory feels a bit too stretched, says Paresh C Palicha.
Maintaining that a Supreme Court appointed panel on Mullaperiyar Dam had accepted Kerala's demand for a new reservoir, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday said the state, which is locked in a row with Tamil Nadu on the issue, would bring it to the court's notice.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday took strong exception to the National Disaster Management Authority forming a team of experts to draw up a contingency response plan for the Mullaperiyar Dam, saying it was nothing but "succumbing to the subterfuge" of Kerala.
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday told DMK supremo M Karunanidhi that Tamilians living in Kerala are "totally safe" and that the apprehensions voiced by him in this regard in the wake of tension between the two states over the Mullaperiyar dam issue were "unfounded".
Three songs from the film have been singled out for the Original Song category.
Terming the Kerala government's apprehension over safety of the Mullaperiyar dam as "unnecessary", Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday claimed it was borne out of "bypoll fear".
Assuring that the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar dam was safe, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday appealed to the people of Kerala not to succumb "to the mechanisations of ill-wishers and unscrupulous mischief mongers".
Seeking arrest of those instigating people over Mullaperiyar dam issue in Kerala and Tamil Nadu under National Security Act, Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy on Monday asked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to hold talks with the neighbour in the overall welfare of the two states.
Tamil Nadu government on Thursday banned Dam 999 with immediate effect after the movie faced a storm of protests from various political parties which claim the controversial film is based on the Mullaperiyar dam, over which the state is locked in an escalating row with Kerala.
Kerala on Tuesday said it is ready for joint control with Tamil Nadu and the Centre, if a new dam is built in place of the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar reservoir, over which the two states are locked in a dispute.
Despite Tamil Nadu's objections, a Supreme Court-appointed Empowered Committee on Mullaperiyar Dam issue on Monday asked the state and Kerala to file their response by Friday on the ownership mechanism of a new dam, if built in place of the existing structure.
Karunanidhi submitted to Singh, who is on a two-day visit to the state, a memorandum, accusing Kerala of having created a situation where "people of Tamil Nadu and Kerala have been instigated to fight against each other like people of two different countries."
Prohibitory orders are in force due to tense situation in the wake of the row between Tamil Nadu and Kerala on the 116-year-old dam, which has escalated in recent days. Kerala wants demolition of the dam citing safety concerns while Tamil Nadu is opposed to it.
Tension prevailed on Monday on Tamil Nadu's borders with Kerala over the Mullaperiyar dam issue, with the police baton charging over 4,000 people who tried to forcibly enter Kerala even as key United Progressive Alliance ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam attacked the Centre, asking it to "at least now" take a timely decision to resolve the escalating row between the two states.
The history of the Cauvery and Mullaperiyar cases has shown how helpless the constitutional processes and judicial verdicts have been in enforcing the law of the land in inter-state and state-Centre disputes, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tension gripped Lower Camp area on Tamil Nadu's border with Kerala on Saturday as over 4,000 villagers of the district took out a march protesting against alleged attacks on Tamils in Kumily in the neighbouring state in the wake of the escalation of the row over Mullaperiyar dam.
Ratcheting up its pressure in the snowballing Mullaperiyar dam row with Tamil Nadu, the Kerala Assembly on Friday unanimously passed a resolution insisting on a new dam to replace the 116-year old reservoir.
As the row over the Mullaperiyar dam hotted up, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention asking him to advise Kerala government not to whip up fear among its people for political mileage and said the dam is "safe and as good as new".
Asserting that the safety of its people is of utmost importance, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday said the state does not have any "secret agenda" to pursue in the Mullaperiyar dam issue.
Where is the much-vaunted Congress 'high command, asks T V R Shenoy. Exactly where it was when Anna Hazare was shaking Delhi in August? Exactly where it was when the FDI-retail concern brought Parliament to a halt in November?
An all-party meeting to discuss the Mullaperiyar Dam row is underway in Thiruvananthapuram even as the situation is normal on Tuesday in Kumali town on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, where prohibitory orders are in force after incidents of stoning of vehicles.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to drop the proposed Dam Safety Bill saying it could affect Tamil Nadu with the state locked in a dispute with Kerala over Mullaiperiyar Dam.
N Sathiya Moorthy explains how the recent floods may complicate the Cauvery issue among Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala
106 people died on a single day on Thursday.
Jayalalithaa termed the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu as a corrupt party, pointing out that the CBI was carrying out raids on the residences and offices of people close to the party's leadership. "The 2G spectrum scam, which has caused a loss of one lakh eighty thousand crores, has been the largest scam in the history of the world .The DMK has always been a corrupt party and this scam has revealed the heights which the DMK leadership can reach in corruption," she said.