Post-independence, there have been several instances of one State blaming another in times of water shortage for the violation of an inter-State water-sharing compact. But what is less known is that Kerala provided water from its southernmost river, the Neyyar, to Tamil Nadu without any formal and written agreement for over 40 years. It was only an understanding that sustained the water supply for irrigation requirements of the Vilavancode taluk of the Kanniyakumari district, which was a part of the erstwhile Travancore-Cochin (TC) State till 1956.
When the Neyyar irrigation project took off in 1951, it was a venture of the former TC State but, by the time it fructified, the project had become a joint Kerala-Madras scheme. Unfortunately, this project – at one point of time, a healthy example of inter-State accommodation – too fell prey to the politics of water in 2004, and for nearly 15 years, the two States have been waging a legal battle.
It all began exactly 68 years ago with the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Kamaraj inaugurating the Neyyar Left Bank Canal Scheme in Kaliyakkavilai village [now, a town panchayat] of the Vilavancode taluk. The event marked the official commencement of water supply for irrigation in the area. He received a message of congratulations from his Kerala counterpart, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, on the occasion. Interestingly, Kamaraj and EMS belonged to two different streams of political thought – the former being a devout Congressite and the latter, a hardcore Leftist.
The project was designed to irrigate 36,000 acres, including about 9,000 acres in the Kanniyakurnari district of Madras. “Additional yield per year from the land benefited by the scheme is estimated at 20,000 tonnes of rice,” reported The Hindu on February 10, 1959, at the time of commissioning of the dam. Apart from the dam being a masonry structure, the water body has two main canals, each of which is with a head discharge of 300 cubic feet per second (cusecs).
Another report of this newspaper on July 29, 1958, quoted Kamaraj as having stated that the Neyyar irrigation scheme was the first among several improvement schemes for the Kanniyakumari district after its merger with the State of Tamil Nadu [at that time, known as Madras] from TC, and his government had spent about a crore of rupees. He went on to say that “even now doubts often arose among some people of the Kanniyakumari district as to whether they were wise in joining Madras State, but it was the responsibility of the Madras Government to dispel such doubts by showing that they were now better off than they were before.”
P. Kakkan, the then Public Works Minister, A. Nesamani, Member of the Legislative Assembly, R. Tirumalai, who was the first District Collector after the merger and who later authored a seminal publication on sociological history of the ancient townships of the Pandian townships, and U. Ananda Rao, Chief Engineer (Irrigation) who was instrumental in getting many dams built in the State during the 1940s and 1950s, were all present on the occasion. Talking of the project, Rao said it covered the construction of a dam across the Neyyar River in Chempilamodu (Kerala), about 30 km east of Thiruvananthapuram city and digging of canals along the river’s north and south banks.
The bonhomie between the two States was such that the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Bishnu Ram Medhi, declared open the dam in the presence of his Kerala counterpart, B. Ramakrishna Rao. Interestingly, both were former Chief Ministers, the former for the northeastern State of Assam and the latter, the Hyderabad State (1952-56). Medhi hailed the ₹ 3.2-crore Neyyar project “a symbol of inter-State co-operation” while Rao said the project was “symbolic of our hopes and aspirations of greater co-operation between neighbouring States.” It was around the same time that the two States had arrived at an understanding on the sharing of the Parambikulam and Aliyar rivers.
On February 12, 1959, The Hindu, in its editorial, praised the project as one “more than that [being a symbol of inter-State co-operation]. It is another instance of the new realism and a genius for compromise and accommodation that has characterised the relations between the sister States of Kerala and Madras in utilising the waters of rivers now running waste into the sea.”
Four years later, Tamil Nadu and Kerala Chief Ministers Kamaraj and R. Sankar were at the site of the Neyyar dam’s head sluice in Inchivila, about 45 km from Thiruvananthapuram, to declare open the Kanniyakumari branch of the Left Bank Canal.
At that time, Sankar made an observation which has still resonance. He said there was an “impression outside Kerala” that the State was not making full use of her water resources and much of it flowed into the Arabian Sea. This impression was not correct and added that every drop of water was being utilised by the State for irrigation and power projects, Mr. Sankar claimed, adding his State would make available to Tamil Nadu, whatever quantity of water that was left over after meeting the State’s requirements, according to a report of this newspaper on April 26, 1963.
The absence of a formal accord had bothered Tamil Nadu, wherein only 3,370 acres had been developed in Vilavancode out of the originally envisaged 9,200 acres. It submitted a draft agreement in 1971 to Kerala, suggesting that the States share the maintenance cost as they did in the case of capital expenditure. But, there was not much progress. Yet, Kerala continued to supply water – around 150 cusecs – to Tamil Nadu without much hassle nearly for 40 years since 1965, when the canal project had been in operation.
Came the southwest monsoon of 2003, when Kerala experienced a rainfall deficit of 33%. Early that year, when the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) general council met in New Delhi to deliberate on the diversion of the west-flowing rivers – Pamba and Achankovil – to the east and link them with Vaippar in Tamil Nadu, Kerala strongly opposed the proposal.
“Time and again, Kerala has expressed strong views against long-distance inter-basin water transfer proposals, which are likely to create complicated water management problems. This is more so where full consent of affected States is not obtained,” said a report in The Hindu dated March 27, 2003, quoting the Kerala Water Resources Minister, T.M. Jacob, as having told the meeting.
The NWDA, which functions under the control of the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, assisted the Task Force formed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre on Interlinking Rivers by conducting pre-feasibility and feasibility studies of 30 identified links. Tamil Nadu, being a strong proponent of inter-basin transfer of river waters, was strongly supporting the efforts of the Union government.
It was then that Kerala decided to act tough with regard to the sharing of water resources. On August 6, 2003, the State’s Assembly “unanimously” adopted a resolution urging the NWDA to drop the proposal. Five days later, Jacob brought in the Kerala Irrigation and Water Conservation Bill seeking to bring, among others, inter-State river water agreements within the purview of the State legislature and prohibition of inter-linking of river waters. As soon as the bill was adopted, it received the assent of the then Governor Sikander Bakht. It was against this backdrop that the Kerala government, in February 2004, stopped the supply of Neyyar River water through the canal for Vilavancode. Tamil Nadu complained that the decision of its neighbour was “abrupt.”
When the Kerala government, headed by A.K. Antony, took the decision to stop the supply, Jayalalithaa was Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. In contrast to her approach on the Cauvery issue, where she vehemently attacked Karnataka, her response was muted vis-à-vis Neyyar. In September 2005, The Hindu, quoting Jayalalithaa’s speech in the Assembly, reported that her Government stood for “maintaining cordial relations with the neighbouring States and it would not allow contentious issues such as sharing of river water and border disputes to assume serious proportions.” Her government would continue with its efforts to persuade Kerala to release water from the Neyyar dam for irrigation in the Vilavancode taluk, besides entering into an agreement with Kerala for this purpose, the newspaper stated on September 29, 2005. In October 2006, the Kerala Assembly adopted a resolution, agreeing to supply the Neyyar water on realising the value of the water given.
Soon, the two States started quarrelling over the question of whether the river is an inter-State river or not. Eventually, Tamil Nadu, in 2012, moved the Supreme Court with an original suit. Cross-examination of witnesses of the two States has been completed. Arguments are to begin.
In the meantime, farmers, who had raised paddy in Vilavancode, have either converted their lands into residential plots or begun growing coconut, banana and rubber, says R. Chellaswamy, Communist Party of India (Marxist) legislator of the Padmanabhapuram constituency and a resident of the Vilavancode taluk.
It is sad that the project, once billed as a shining example of inter-State cooperation, has been virtually allowed to wither away, at least in respect of Vilavancode.
