“The 116-year-old Mullaperiyar dam at Vallakkadavu in Kerala’s Idukki district would soon explode” is the finding of politicians to thattukada vendors. This is vicious. Where from these people got this information? People are worried about the panic campaign being carried out minister P J Joseph of the Kerala Cabinet to the last grade servant in the local village office.
The people who make shock among people have no immediate remedy for dam havoc as it is not easy a construct a dam like making a ‘dosa’ . It would make years to complete the construction work of new dam and in that context the Kerala politicians should have taken restraint not to make the people scared. TV news channels, just like in many stupid issues, are unfair in their coverage of the Mullaperiyar situation. Almost every Malayalam news channel has special campaign programmes on Mullaperiyar and almost all of them are emphasizing on the likelihood of the dam-collapse. The channels have identified that Mullaperiyar shows are more thrilling to people than their usual Kunjalikutty-Rauf- Kiliroor-Paravoor sex scandals.
The present crisis might have been the outcome of canvassing viewers for Sohan Roy’s Hollywood flop “Dam 999” and to equip people for Piravam by-election, and more likely whole uproar would subside after the election. And thereafter the people of Kerala would sleep for another three years with the same old dam at the same location. If earth quakes are the reason for the damage of the present dam then who could guarantee a newly constructed dam would withstand tremors of 5.0 or above on Rictor scale?
The spread of fire on dam havoc was splintered by none other than Kerala Water Resources Minister PJ Joseph, who is badly in need of his image lost after the infamous tremor in an aeroplane and a later minor SMS tremor. Interestingly, the Kerala Congress Mani group is only political party in Kerala that is really worried about the lives of 35 lakh people. The statistics of 35 lakh lives is also ridiculous as the four ‘washed-out’ districts viz. Alappuzha, Idukki, Ernakulam and Kottayam together hold a total population of 8488640.
K A Solaman
