Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the Centre was in talks with Tamil Nadu to reduce the water level in Mullaperiyar to 139 feet.
"Union home minister Rajnath Singh has talked to the Tamil Nadu chief secretary," the chief minister said. "There is no need to panic about Mullaperiyar," he added.
The chief minister was speaking to media here on Wednesday after convening a second stock-taking exercise on Wednesday.
Also read: Kerala battles heavy rain, flood
Pinarayi Vijayan had e-mailed his Tamil Nadu counterpart Edappadi K Palaniswami early in the day when the Mullaperiyar reservoir level touched the maximum limit of 142 feet, warning him that Kerala would suffer huge damages if Tamil Nadu did not release more water from the dam. He had also told Palaniswami that Tamil Nadu engineers were not cooperating.
The Mullaperiyar dam is managed by the Tamil Nadu government.
Pinarayi speaks to PM Modi
Pinarayi also briefed prime minister Narendra Modi about the flood situation. “I have told him that the shutters of all the dams in the state have been opened and that the rivers were overflowing their banks. I have also told him that many villages have been isolated,” the chief minister said. He has also urged the union home minister to dispatch more units of the army, army engineering corps and National Disaster Response Force to the state. The state has also asked for C-17 planes to airlift NDRF personnel and their equipments to affected areas in an emergency.
Drinking water
Pinarayi said that reaching drinking water to affected areas would be accorded the highest priority. “We might also employ helicopters to reach drinking water to isolated areas,” the chief minister said. Most of the drinking water projects in the state have gone under water, and have therefore stopped operations. The water will be transported from government projects in less-affected areas. The state has also asked for more boats to carry out rescue missions in flood-ravaged areas. The chief minister said the union home minister had promised more dinghies.
With the Nedumbassery airport closed till Saturday, it has been found that travellers to Kerala have to disembark at places like Mumbai. “We are in talks with the Navy to land small flights in its air base in Kochi. Even the Boeing 737 can land in the air base. Small flights can land in Kozhikode airport, too. As for Thiruvananthapuram, all flights can land there,” the chief minister said. KSRTC buses have been arranged to take passengers who would land in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode to their destinations. The chief minister termed the rain-triggered ravages across the state as 'extremely grave'.
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