Tamil Nadu CM urges PM Modi to withdraw Dam Safety Bill

CHENNAI: Asserting that “the serious concerns of Tamil Nadu have not been addressed at all” by the Centre, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to instruct the Union water resources ministry to withdraw the Dam Safety Bill, 2018, introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
“I request you not to proceed further with the process of legislation till such time Tamil Nadu’s genuine concerns are addressed and a consensus evolved among all the states,” Palaniswami wrote in a letter to Modi.
The main concerns of Tamil Nadu include the clause that specifies that the National Dam Safety Authority will act as the State Dam Safety Organisation for a dam that is owned by another state.
“This implies that the dam owning state would have no rights over the safety and maintenance of the dam located in another state,” Palaniswami said.
Mullaperiyar, Parambikulam, Thunakadavu and Peruvaripallam dams in Kerala are owned, operated and maintained by the Tamil Nadu government by inter-state agreements. The Supreme Court upheld the rights of Tamil Nadu in Mullaperiyar in its judgment in May 2014.
Denying Tamil Nadu the right to be the dam safety authority regarding these four dams and vesting the powers to the National Dam Safety Authority would tantamount to encroaching on the rights of Tamil Nadu which was unconstitutional. It was also a violation of federal principles enshrined in the Constitution, the chief minister said.
He requested Modi to suitably amend the clause to ensure that the dam safety organisation of a state should have jurisdiction over the dams owned, controlled, operated and maintained by it even then they were in another state.
Tamil Nadu also had suggested a new sub-clause to enable dam owning states to enter forest and wildlife sanctuary areas to ensure proper maintenance of the dams, which was also not incorporated in the bill introduced in Lok Sabha.
Incidentally, Palaniswami wrote to Modi in June not to legislate an act on dam safety till such time all the states are consulted, and consensus is evolved. The state assembly passed a resolution expressing the concerns of the people on the dam safety and the same was conveyed to the central government for immediate action.