Thiruvananthapuram: A day after the apex court asked Kerala and Tamil Nadu to first approach the supervisory committee regarding the release or management of water level in the Mullaperiyar Dam, the opposition Congress on Thursday came out against the LDF government saying that it has failed to uphold the state's interest before the panel.
Alleging that the Left government was constantly "cheating" people of Kerala over the dam issue, the party also wanted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to break his silence over the matter.
Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, V D Satheesan said the government should inquire about the circumstance under which the Supreme Court "mocked" at the state while hearing an application by them seeking a direction to Tamil Nadu not to release a huge quantity of water in the wee hours from the dam.
"The apex court asked why it was coming to the court without raising the issue in the supervisory committee. The government has failed to uphold Kerala's interest before the panel," he told reporters here.
The chief minister should break his silence at least now in the issues including Mullaperiyar, he said.
Though it was an achievement for Kerala when the supervisory committee was formed following an apex court verdict in 2014, the court now observed that the problems of the state were not properly raised before the panel, the Congress leader added.
On the controversies regarding the alleged intervention of Higher Education Minister R Bindhu in the reappointment of Gopinath Raveendran as Kannur University vice chancellor, Satheesan reiterated that she had no moral right to continue in office she had violated the oath of office.
The minister has the responsibility to tell people about the letter which she had written to the Governor in this regard but Bindhu was trying to evade that, he charged.
He also alleged that the Vijayan government was showing undue hastiness in implementing the K-Rail project, a mammoth infrastructure project, with aim to facilitate corruption.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the governments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu might have political compulsion outside but both the states should behave like any normal litigant before the court in the matter related to the 126-year-old Mullaperiyar dam.
A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar said that before making any grievances in the court, the parties must first approach the supervisory committee before taking any step for the release or management of water level in the dam, built in 1895 on the Periyar river in Idukki district of Kerala. We say no more. Both sides must abide by this discipline without exception and no fresh application be moved before this court for such grievances which can be sorted out by consensual approach of all stakeholders, the bench said.
The top court was hearing an application filed by Kerala government, which was seeking a direction to Tamil Nadu not to release a huge quantity of water in the wee hours from the dam saying it causes heavy damage to the people living downstream of the dam.
The bench observed that supervisory committee is the best judge to take a call on this aspect and it would take into account the request for release of water and also on whether there is a need for that.
(With PTI inputs)
