Tamil Nadu-Kerala dam row

[1] From several technical surveys conducted, Kerala states the old masonry dam built with lime surkhi mortar is structurally getting weaker and costly in leakage and massive cracks - shear maintenance in abutments[2] above all poses a significant danger to an approximate 3 million people living in the region and that it needs to be rebuilt – a move opposed by Tamil Nadu.

[citation needed] Tamil Nadu maintains that the endangered dam was repaired in 1979 and insists the dam's walls have been strengthened and that it can hold more water than the current level of 136 ft (41 m) and also due to the fact it only takes around 25,000 INR per year payment for an estimated usage of water for 8000 acres per British oppression era lease,[3] this does not include how many tmc feet could be shared which is also a blissful loophole in the Mullayar-"Periyar Lease Deed of 1886" that the government is unwilling to waive.

[7] Thousands of people of Kerala have formed a 208 km human wall in the following day[citation needed] to demand a replacement to the dam although Tamil Nadu insists it is safe and that water levels can be raised.

The protest was led by the opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) in which politicians, social activists and families along the way took part.

It also struck down Kerala Irrigation Water Conservation Act and constituted a permanent Supervisory Committee to oversee all the issues concerning Mullaperiyar dam.

Tamil Nadu has insisted on exercising its unfettered rights to control the dam and its waters, based on the 1866 lease agreement.

[citation needed] In 2006, the Supreme Court of India by its decision by a three-member division bench, allowed for the storage level to be raised to 142 feet (43 m) pending completion of the proposed strengthening measures, provision of other additional vents and implementation of other suggestions.

[18] On 18 February 2010, the Supreme Court decided to constitute a five-member empowered committee to study all the issues of Mullaperiyar Dam and seek a report from it within six months.

[19] The Bench in its draft order said Tamil Nadu and Kerala would have the option to nominate a member each, who could be either a retired judge or a technical expert.

The five-member committee will be headed by former Chief Justice of India A. S. Anand to go into all issues relating to the dam's safety and the storage level.

However, the then ruling party of Tamil Nadu, DMK, passed a resolution that not only opposes the apex court's decision to form the five-member committee but also said that the state government will not nominate any member to it.

[24] However, Supreme Court refused to accept Tamil Nadu's request to scrap the decision to form the empowered committee.

[25] Implementing directions of the Supreme Court, the Central Government extended the terms of Empowered Committee for a further period of six months, namely till 30 April 2012.

[16] In its report submitted to the Supreme Court on 25 April 2012, the committee is understood to have said: "The dam is structurally, hydrologically, and seismically safe."

Section 62A of the Act provides for listing in the schedule, "details of the dams which are endangered on account of their age, degeneration, degradation, structural or other impediments as are specified".