Mullaperiyar case: Kerala taking a 'misleading' stand, says Vaiko

Accusing the Kerala government of taking a "misleading" stand that the inter-state Mullaperiyar dam was weak, Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK) leader Vaiko today said an economic blockade by Tamil Nadu was ''inevitable'' if the government in the neighbouring state, did not ''change its ways.''

"We have nothing against the people of Kerala. But we want to tell them that the government is misleading them, saying that the dam is weak and is likely to collapse, killing lot of people. They even circulated CDs with computer-generated graphics for this purpose," Vaiko told reporters here.

He said most of the farmers in five districts of Tamil Nadu would be affected if a new dam came up as "Tamil Nadu would be denied water". The state had lost a bulk of its share of water, following Kerala's refusal to increase the storage level to 142 ft, despite the supreme court order, which it had tried to circumvent by an Act, he said.

"The dam is strong, and it was on this basis that the supreme court allowed Tamil Nadu to increase storage level from 136 to 142 ft," he said, charging chief minister M Karunanidhi-led DMK government with failing to implement the court order.

Both, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, are at loggerheads over constructing a new dam across the inter-state Mullaperiyar river.

Vaiko also said the ''struggle'' by the Sri Lankan Tamils for a separate homeland was not over with the elimination of the LTTE, as Tamils and Sinhalese "cannot co-exist."

He said the concept of a separate Ealam was propounded even before the "armed struggle"  (of the LTTE) started.