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Tamil Nadu not responding positively to talks on dam issue: Kerala CM

Chief Minister Ommen Chandy said Kerala wanted to solve the row over the dam amicably through talks, but the response of Tamil Nadu had "not been positive".

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Kerala today accused Tamil Nadu of "not responding positively" to its offer for talks on the raging Mullaperiyar row as shops and business establishments remained shut in response to a traders' strike in five districts of the neighbouring state.

Chief Minister Ommen Chandy said Kerala wanted to solve the row over the dam amicably through talks, but the response of Tamil Nadu had "not been positive".

He also took a dig at his Tamil Nadu counterpart Jayalalithaa saying she was opposing the Koodankulam Nuclear Power plant citing the safety concerns of local people but not applying the same yardstick for the Mullaperiyar dam.

Speaking at the mass contact programme in Alappuzha, Chandy said Kerala did not like to have any tension between the people of two neighbouring states on this issue.

Kerala has been insisting on a new dam to replace the 116-year old Mullaperiyar dam over safety concerns, a position which Tamil Nadu, under whose control the reservoir comes, refuses to accept.

Meanwhile, in the five southern districts of Tamil Nadu fed by Mullaperiyar dam waters for irrigation, shops and business establishments downed shutters in response to the bandh call given by traders' outfits and local chambers of commerce protesting Kerala's stand.

The shutdown was total in Madurai, Theni, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga and Dindigul districts, police said, adding cinema houses also remained closed.

The dam issue has escalated in recent days in the midst of an unending war of words between leaders of both states over Kerala's insistence on decommissioning the exisisting structure.

Jayalalithaa, in her fourth letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the Mullaperiyar issue, had yesterday slammed the Centre for forming an expert team to draw up a contingency response plan for the reservoir, saying it was succumbing to the "subterfuge" of Kerala government.

Meanwhile, a 31-year old DMDK member, who consumed poison protesting Kerala's stand, died at a hospital in Theni after battling for life for a week, police said.

State Finance Minister O Panneerselvam paid homage to Sekar at his house here.

Sekar is the second person to die for the cause from Theni District since the current bout of protests broke out late last month. Jayaprakash Narayanan, a van driver, had resorted to self-immolation on December 19 over the issue.

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