October 29, 2024 • Makkal Adhikaram
Vaigai Periyar Dam Irrigation Farmers Association Coordinator S. Pennycuick Balasingham said that the remaining life of the Mullai Periyar Dam will be 861 years for another 861 years. Instead of raising the issue of demolition or construction of the dam or threatening the Tamil Nadu government and the farmers of Tamil Nadu, look for something else. This is because the life span of this dam is many more centuries. Only then will you have to think about it.
On 29.10.1886, the then Raja of Travancore, Sri Moolam was appointed to the Madras Presidency for the construction of the Mullai Periyar Dam by K.K. Rama Varma, the Dewan of the State. V. Signed by Rama Iyengar.
On behalf of the Chennai Rajdhani, the then State Secretary for the Mullaperiyar Dam, J.C. Hannington signed. In this agreement, 8000 acres was allotted for the water storage area of the dam and 100 + 100 acres for construction works.
The Madras Presidency has to pay an annual lease of Rs 5 per acre to the princely state of Travancore. Moreover, the lease signed by the Chennai Rajdhani that all kinds of objects in the dam area, that is, from the trees cut for the construction of the dam, belong to the Chennai Rajdhani is a big question mark today.
Even though the Kerala political parties are raising the war flag that the 999-year lease is nowhere else in the world, the victory of the great Penny Quick is that the agreement made is as firm as the structure of the dam. Moreover, the question arises as to how so many acres of land near Kumuli came to the princely state of Travancore as intermediaries, when the Tamil traditional Oonjal Samsthanam was ruling from Erattupettai in Kottayam district to Poonjar, Mundakkayam, Peermedu, Vandiperiyar, Kumuli, Gudalur and Uthamapalayam and from Kottakkalai to the present day Mariyamangalam bridge.
Moreover, at a time when we are saying that the Malayali officials were the original architects of this agreement, Rama Iyengar, who was the Dewan of Travancore State, was from Tamil Nadu and when he signed a 99-year lease, he has changed it to 999 in his loyalty to Tamil Nadu. Moreover, the 1970 agreement was signed after the 1886 agreement to question the credibility of the dam.
The agreement was signed by the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. G. Pennycuick Balasingham, coordinator of the Mullaperiyar Vaigai Irrigation Farmers Association, said the agreement between Ramachandran and Kerala Chief Minister Achuthanandan was a complete sacrifice to the rights of Tamil Nadu. Further, the Government of Tamil Nadu, which had all the rights over the dam for 70 years, was prevented from going even to Mullai Kodi, where the rain gauge of the dam is situated, after the re-agreement.
Apart from this, Tamil Nadu has lost 80 per cent of the rights to boats, fishing rights, security rights, freedom of movement of Tamil Nadu engineers in the dam, the right to maintain the dam, the right to travel to tourists of Tamil Nadu, and the right to maintain and operate the dam with full rights. Further, a reagreement was signed in 1970 to strengthen the dam and raise the water level from 136 ft. to 152 ft. within 10 years.
But today, even after 40 years, we have not completed even 60% of the maintenance work on the dam. In such a situation, it is a violation of the agreement that the political parties of Kerala are doing politics with the Mullaperiyar dam. When the life of the dam is still 861 years old, why unnecessary political talk? If possible, touch whoever can, says Pennycuick Balasingham, coordinator of the Periyar Vaigai Irrigation Farmers Association with pride.
