KOCHI: No joint ownership with Tamil Nadu for the new dam, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said. Ending all confusion and controversies surrounding the CM’s statement on the joint ownership of the proposed new dam at Mullaperiyar, Oommen Chandy on Friday said that ‘the ownership, operations and maintenance of the new dam would be vested absolutely with Kerala.’ The regulation of water from the new dam would be under a joint committee having representatives from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Centre.In a hasty press briefing convened in Kochi on Friday in the wake of the recent controversy, the Chief Minister made it clear that the ownership and control of the new dam at Mullaperiyar would be with Kerala only. on this issue, the government is following the same policy as that of the previous LDF government, he said. “According to the previous government’s stand, for regulation of water from the new dam, there will be a joint committee consisting of engineers from Kerala and Tamil Nadu as is being done in the case of Parambikulam-Aliyar and Siruvani. This was the stand of the previous government. Then the court told us that it should be an independent committee. Then we decided to have representatives from the Centre also. The joint committee is only for regulation of water,” the Chief Minister said.Oommen Chandy said that the government had no hidden agenda on the Mullaperiyar issue. “Kerala’s counsel has made clear before the Empowered Committee that the ownership, operations and maintenance of the dam would be with Kerala only,” he pointed out adding that the new government has not taken any new decision regarding this. “For the first time, there is a positive trend in the Empowered Committee regarding a new dam. We had said that the same quantity of water will be given to Tamil Nadu. For Kerala, every minute is important as far as safety is concerned. Similarly, for Tamil Nadu, each day is important as far as water is concerned,” he said.
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