Kerala HC raps state govt on Munnar dams issue

The state government doesn’t appear to have followed the correct legal and administrative procedure in threatening to demolish check dams in the Munnar region of the Tata Group-invested Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company, said a judge of the High Court here today.

Judge T R Ramachandran Nair questioned the authority of the district collector of Idukki in issuing showcause notices (under directions from the state government) to KDHPC to demolish the two dams. The power to rule on the safety and environmental aspect of such structures, he said, appeared to vest with the Dam Safety Authority, a state government agency, not the collector.

 

However, added the judge, a decision on this and related issues raised in the petition before it from KDHPC needed to be taken by the three-judge ‘Green Bench’ of the HC. Hence, he said, he was referring the matter to the said bench. There is, he directed, to be no change in the ground situation for the next three weeks, by when the said bench would have taken up the matter.

The court directed the collector to send on all the proceedings of hearings held by him on the showcause notice.