Chennai, Oct 30 (IANS) AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa Friday charged Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK government with diluting its stand on the Mullaiperiyar dam issue, indicating a total lack of concern about the rights or needs of the people of the state.
“The minority DMK government’s stand on the Mullaiperiyar issue is reminiscent of the story of the donkey progressively getting transformed into an ant,” she said about the alleged “changing stance” of DMK leader and Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi.

Recalling the DMK’s announcement of holding a protest meeting in Madurai Nov 1 against Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, she said in a statement: “In a show of false bravado, Karunanidhi had announced that, fighting age and infirmity, he would personally address the gathering. Overnight Karunanidhi changed tack. The meeting in Madurai would not condemn Jairam Ramesh or the central government but to voice his protest against the Kerala government.”

She attributed the sudden change in DMK’s stand to the raids on the offices of the telecom department by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the spectrum scam.

The DMK’s A.Raja is the telecommunications minister.

On DMK’s decision to call off the Madurai meeting citing the ongoing case on the dam issue in the Supreme Court, she recalled: “Karunanidhi conveniently forgot that, a little over a year ago, he had organised a bandh and a protest meeting in Chennai on the Sethusamudram issue even though the Supreme Court was hearing a case on it.”

Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been at loggerheads over the Mullaperiyar dam built under an agreement signed in 1886 between the then maharaja of Travancore and the British administration.

The dam, located in Kerala’s Idukki district, serves Tamil Nadu. In recent years, Tamil Nadu has demanded that the storage capacity of the dam be raised from 136 feet (41.5 m) to 142 feet (43 m) to meet the increasing demand of water for irrigation. However, Kerala is seeking the construction of a new dam, contending the existing structure had outlived its life.