The five-member sub-committee, constituted by the Supreme Court-appointed High Power Supervisory Committee, cancelled its visit to the Mullaperiyar dam on Tuesday after Kerala officials denied Tamil Nadu members permission.
When Tamil Nadu PWD Superintending Engineer Rajesh Das and Tamil Nadu members of the committee — SDO R. Soundaram and Executive Engineer A. Madhavan — reached Thekkady to board a boat, Kerala forest officials prevented them from entering the jetty.
They insisted that the members follow fresh guidelines — the signing of a register at the Thekkady checkpoint at the entrance of the Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR) and production of identity cards.
Mr. Das advised the forest officials to respect the members who represented the State and whose names had been approved by Kerala. The team also met PTR officers. Even after prolonged talks, forest officers refused permission.
Shocked at the behaviour of the Kerala officials, committee chairman and Central Water Commission Executive Engineer Umberji Harish Girish briefed supervisory committee chairman L.A.V. Nathan of the incident on the mobile phone and sought his advice to proceed further. Then, he expressed his unwillingness to go to the dam without the Tamil Nadu members and cancelled his visit before going back to Kochi.
However, Kerala members George Daniel and N.S. Praseed went to the dam by road through Vallakadavu.
Later, PWD officials asked the forest officials to allow Mr. Das to visit the dam for a routine inspection. But they stuck to their stand. The Tamil Nadu members also returned to Theni.
The denial of permission to the sub-committee amounted to contempt of court, and if this trend continued, the Supervisory Committee, too, would find it difficult to visit the dam on December 29, PWD sources said.
The PWD officials have not visited the dam by boat since November 27.
