Thiruvananthapuram, Sunday, December 18, 2011: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Sunday wrote a letter to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa requesting immediate action to prevent the recent attacks carried out upon Keralites residing in TN in connection with the Mullaperiyar dam issue.

Shops and commercial establishments owned by Keralites in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu have come under attack as a fall out of the Mullaperiyar Dam controversy which has seen Kerala and TN at loggerheads.

The Mullaperiyar Dam in Kerala’s Idukki district has been a sparring point for the state with Tamil Nadu for quite some time now. While Tamil Nadu wants to increase the water-level in the reservoir, Kerala has been insisting that it be reduced from the current 136 feet to 120 feet.
Kerala is willing to construct a new dam for supplying water to Tamil Nadu, which is opposing the move concerned over losing control over the functionality of the dam.
Various groups in Kerala had been arguing that the dam cannot withstand higher magnitude earthquakes and posed a threat to lives and properties of over three million people in Idukki, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta districts of the state.