New Delhi/Thiruavanathapuram: As political parties and voluntary groups in Kerala intensified protests on Mullaperiyar Dam issue, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepped in on Tuesday and met four delegations from Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
It was an indication that a meeting of the Chief Ministers of both states would be convened soon to find an amicable solution to the issue.
This came after MPs from Tamil Nadu and Central and state ministers from Kerala sought the Prime Minister's immediate intervention on the issue.
Singh did not give any assurance to representatives from both states, but listened patiently to their views and said he would talk to Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on the issue.
"The Prime Minister heard us patiently. We submitted a memorandum to him in this regard. He listened to our views. He said he would talk to Water Resources Minister and ask him to work on a meeting of Chief Ministers of both states," Virudunagar Congress MP Manick Tagore said.
The Congress and the DMK delegations from Tamil Nadu, which met Singh separately, accused political parties in Kerala of misleading people on safety of Mullaperiyar Dam and called their actions "false propaganda".
However, the delegations from Kerala said they were open for talks with the neighbouring states, adding that they would not oppose a third party intervention to decide the operations of a new dam, if it was allowed to be constructed in the place of existing one.
"If Tamil Nadu has any apprehension over the operation of a new dam... we are willing to leave such matters and rest of other things to a third party – whether it is Supreme Court or a political establishment like Prime Minister. Let us construct a new dam," Kerala Revenue Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said.
Normal life was disrupted in four vulnerable districts, including Idukki, where the 116-year-old dam is located, as BJP and Kerala Congress(M) separately called for a dawn-to-
dusk hartal.
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