Supreme Court moots safety audit of Mullaperiyar Dam

In a pertinent development regarding the safety concerns surrounding Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala, the Supreme Court on Wednesday hinted that it would be open to ordering a safety audit of the dam to allay any fears surrounding the 130-year-old dam..A Bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan said that it could ask the Central government to form an expert committee to inspect and assess the dam. "We can ask Central government to form an expert committee, get the dam assessed and take a call," the Court remarked.The Court today also flagged the failure by the Central government to constitute the National Committee on Dam Safety under the Dam Safety Act. Hence, it sought the response of the Central government.The Court was hearing a plea by advocate Mathews Nedumpara seeking review of the Court's previous orders regarding the safety of dam.It was pointed out that the presumption in the order of 2006 was that a failure of Mullaperiyar dam will not be catastrophic since the water could be contained by the Idukki dam located 56 km downstream..The Mullaperiyar dam, which was built by the British, has been a source of friction between Tamil Nadu (TN) and Kerala.While the dam and its catchment area are within Kerala, the water from its reservoir is used by Tamil Nadu and is the lifeline of five districts in TN.In a 2014 judgment, the Supreme Court had ruled in favour of Tamil Nadu and held that the dam is safe but the water level in the dam's reservoir should be kept at 142 feet. It had then constituted a supervisory committee to manage the dam.Tamil Nadu has all along maintained that the dam is safe and has also sought directions for strengthening the existing dam.Later during the Kerala floods of 2018, a petition came to be filed before the top court in which an interim order to maintain the water level at 139 feet during the Kerala floods was passed as a temporary arrangement.The Kerala government has contended throughout that the dam is unsafe and should be decommissioned..When the matter was heard today, the Court noted that the Central government is yet to constitute the National Committee on Dam Safety under the Dam Safety Act of 2021. "We find that in terms of the Act, committee of members as under section 5(1) was required to be constituted within 60 days of commencement of Act and reconstituted after every three years. We are informed by the counsel/senior counsel that no such national committee has been constituted so far and no rules also have been framed for function etc of such a committee so far," the Court noted.It also noted that while a supervisory committee has been constituted pursuant to the 2014 judgment of the Court, the same is not provided for in the Act.."It appears there is no provision in the Dam Safety Sct prescribing formation of this supervisory committee. It is further appears that the Union government has conceptualized the supervisory committee maybe in pursuance of judgment of this court. The Dam Safety Act provides for formation of national committee and the same has not been done," the Court said.Hence, it proceeded to issue notice to the Central government. "Let notice be issued to Union. Let copy be served on the office of Attorney General (AG) and AG to assist court in next date of hearing," the Bench ordered.The matter will be taken up on January 22.