Mullaperiyar Dam storage to increase under new government: Jayalalithaa

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalaltihaa Friday expressed her doubts about the centre setting up a committee to supervise increasing the Mullaperiyar Dam storage level and added the new government will take necessary action.

The new government will be formed after results of the ongoing Lok Sabha election are declared May 16.

In a statement issued here, Jayalalithaa said the state government, while nominating its member, has written to the centre to form a committee to supervise raising the water storage level in the dam to 142 feet.

She said the central and the Kerala governments have to nominate one member each in the proposed panel as ordered by the Supreme Court in its recent judgment on the dam dispute.

The apex court Wednesday struck down the 2006 Kerala act that sought to restrict the water level in the dam at 136 feet.

The chief minister said the state government has already taken preliminary steps towards increasing the dam's storage level.

She also criticised DMK president M. Karunanidhi for remaining silent on the issue when his party was in power both at the centre and in the state.