shaardula wrote:
Meanwhile decades later KL has comeup with possible use for some water that it can use to address some of its current problems.
Kerala does not covet the water that TN gets. We have had ample statements to that effect by almost everyone from Kerala side (except for some one or two nutjobs who I wont consider seriously). Kerala does covet the electricity that it badly needs from the Idukki hydel project and that TN generates out of MP. Unfortunately, if Idukki has to deliver its full capacity of 780 MW, then the water level in MP has to come down dramatically. If the water level in TN comes down as dramatically as is needed, then you will have serious viability issues for agriculture as well as livelihood because of increasing usage of land for cultivation on TN's side based on assumptions of water perpetuity. There lies the real issue if you strip away the semantics and add 2 and 2 together.
So it is basically a big need to be electricity sufficient, not water sufficient. That problem is there with every state that adds nukular, coal plants etc. to meet new and increasing needs. TN feeds the national grid from Neyveli, Kalpakkam and (Kudankulam -- envisioned), and Kerala gets a portion of the supply. May be there is a backroom diplomacy possible on tariffs etc. without going through the national grid, may be.
Whatever be the issue, I dont buy that safety is the biggest issue for Kerala. Safety is just the surface of a deeper problem that is not even declared in so many words. Whine profiles such as lease agreement in perpetuity, TN pays shitty less, TN does one thing for Kudankulam and ignores us when we raise the same issue, are all irritants, not a major issue. All that said, the moment a system reduces to bringing in safety this and safety that, there is really no other way but to handle the mess. You cant have two rules in India: you cant treat Jaitapur or Kudankulam or Singur or Nyamagiri or Narmada differently and ignore Mullaipperiyar, most of these whines are irrational if you look at them seriously. But there is no logic (or rather there is no need for a logic) for safety, that is the reality.
The problem right now is that while KL assumes all the liability, TN assumes all the benefits and none of the liability.
This is a post-facto reduction to liability and benefits. All this while, there were no assumptions of liability on having a dam in Kerala. And even if there are liability issues with having a dam, all that liability can be solved if we have a new dam under the same lease agreement because noone envisioned that Kerala will have such safety concerns now. Why dont we have a single statement to this effect? Because claims of liability are not justified by claims to honesty in terms of honoring an agreement made in colonial era and to which new life was breathed repeatedly in the post-47 era not including the 1970 additional deeds that were signed. You sit on your backside for 20+ years after independence and then you suddenly claim that somehow people have forced you to put your signature on a lease deed, cmon, who is the kid in this argument?
Any give at a negotiating table will have to be all done by TN.
Again, it is your perception that is not consonant with reality. TN will have to agree to a new dam, but Kerala will have to honor its part of the agreement. How is that not conceded yet? Why are people so missing the boat here? Its a simple deal, really. Honoring a SC judgment is not done, honoring a signed agreement seems like an issue, so where exactly should TN take confidence from? If its a rule of the jungle, let it be a free-for-all, that is TN's precise response. KA sits on its ass, KL wants to sit on its ass, well, you know what, TN too will sit on its ass. The only state that has been fair enough from TN's water needs perspective is AP and the Krishna water that flows downstream to Madras and surroundings. That is precisely how reality has turned up. Karnataka cant watch from the sidelines in this mess, because it has also set a precedent in how it has badly handled the Cauvery tribunal award and how TN's position has been hardlined because of such bad precedents. You cant sit there and blame TN as if TN is doing things in a vacuum. Every state bullshits about generosity and honesty and does its own crap, TN is not new to this game either. Unfortunately, when TN does things the same way, it becomes a big issue? Funny....