Vijayan warns against social media campaign over Mullaperiyar dam's safety

While a social media campaign for decommissioning the 125-year-old Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala gathered momentum with well-known celebrities joining it, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan warned of legal action against 'scaremongering'.

Located in the Idukki district of Kerala, the dam managed by Tamil Nadu diverts the water to parts of Tamil Nadu. It has been a point of discussion for quite some time as Kerala wants to construct a new dam owing to safety concerns, while Tamil Nadu was opposing it.

The row gained momentum with a recent report of the United Nations University - Institute for Water, Environment and Health not ruling out the chances for the dam breaking due to structural issues. The dam also reportedly developed some cracks following tremors.

It was in this backdrop a campaign '#decommissionmullaperiyardam' got triggered on social media expressing concern that lakhs of people would be hit in case of any untoward incident as at least six districts in central Kerala, including Kochi, could be affected. Even Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin was being widely tagged in the campaign.

Many known celebrities like actors Prithviraj Sukumaran and Unni Mukundan joined the campaign and it was going viral. He said in the post that regardless of what the facts and findings were or would be, there was no reason or excuse for the 125-year-old dam to exist as a functioning structure.

However, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the Assembly on Monday that there was no fresh scare over the dam's safety and hence the present social media campaign could be considered only as scaremongering. Such attempts to create unrest through baseless social media campaigns would be strongly dealt with. The differences with Tamil Nadu over the need for a new dam need to be settled through deliberations and not through such campaigns, he said.

Meanwhile, as the water level of the dam was increasing Vijayan urged Stalin to draw maximum water from the dam as the water level was expected to tough 142 feet. Kerala also approached the Supreme Court urging that the water level should be maintained below 139 feet.

Watch latest videos by DH here: