Siruvani: TN passes resolution against nod to EIA by Kerala

The Tamil Nadu Assembly today unanimously passed a resolution urging the Centre not to accept an Environment Ministry committee's recommendation allowing Kerala to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Attappady Valley Irrigation project.
The resolution, moved by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, also urged the Centre not to grant clearance to Kerala and Karnataka to take up any project in the Cauvery basin till the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee came into force and court cases in this regard were settled.
Following reports in 2012 about Kerala's attempts to build a dam on the Siruvani river as part of the project, the Chief Minister had taken it up with the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging that Kerala be advised not to proceed with any project till the 2007 final award of the Cauvery Tribunal was published in a Central gazette and cases filed by the respective states were settled.

The resolution said the Siruvani was an inter-state river and a "sub-tributary" of the Cauvery.
Therefore, the Cauvery River Water Tribunal, while delivering its final verdict in 2007 on river water sharing, had included the Siruvani and Bhavani basins also to calculate the quantum of sharing, it said.
The state government was then in constant communication with the Centre, arguing against granting any technical approval to Kerala on the issue, it said.

The Central Water Resources Ministry had, in March 2013, informed Tamil Nadu that Kerala had been asked to get the consent of the Cauvery Tribunal and the river basin states concerned on the matter, it said.

Further, the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry had, in March this year, asked Kerala to get Tamil Nadu's opinion on its plea for granting of Standard Terms of Reference for the EIA, saying it will consider the state's plea after it had got Tamil Nadu's viewpoint, the resolution said.
However, the EAC had recommended to the Environment Ministry in August this year that Kerala be granted approval for conducting the EIA.
"This is in contradiction to the March 2013 letter of the Central Water Resources Ministry. It is regrettable that the EAC had granted approval in haste," it said.

Recalling the EAC's submission, the resolution said it had
used the word "instead of" for "in spite of" in an observation that read: "The EAC took note of no responses from the Tamil Nadu state instead of several letters sent from the Government of Kerala and MoEF and CC to the Government of Tamil Nadu..." and this showed the EAC's haste, it added.
The resolution was welcomed and supported by the DMK, whose deputy leader Durai Murugan spoke on it, the Congress, the IUML and the AIADMK allies -- Manithaneya Jananayaka Katchi, Kongu Ilaignar Peravai and Mukkulathor Pulippadai.
Jayalalithaa had recently written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.