Cumbom (TN): MDMK leader Vaiko and 900 party
workers were arrested on Tuesday when they attempted to stage a
road blockade here on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border protesting
against the neighbouring state`s plans to construct a new dam
replacing the 114-year-old Mullaperiyar dam.
Traffic was affected for more than one hour due to the
picketing programme during which Vaiko and others were
arrested, police said.
Vaiko threatened to intensify agitation and block nine
inter-state entry points on the border if Kerala went ahead
with its plans, which, according to him, would lead to denial
of water to Tamil Nadu.
Kerala`s argument that the existing dam was extremely
unsafe was not based on facts, he said.
The dam, located in Kerala but administered by Tamil
Nadu, has been a long-standing dispute between the two states
and the matter is pending before the Supreme Court.
While Kerala is of the view that the 114-year-old dam
was "critically unsafe" and posed a grim threat to nearly five
million people living downstream, Tamil Nadu has persistently
refused to accept it and wanted the storage level to be
increased from 136 feet to 142 feet.
The Kerala Government had recently completed a
techno-ecological survey of the location where it was planning
to build the new dam.
PTI
