Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy rejects spy report

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today termed as 'baseless' the report that an official from Tamil Nadu had been functioning as a spy, 'leaking' vital information from the state Secretariat here on inter-state water sharing issues between the two states.

'It is baseless and no documents related to water sharing dispute was leaked from the secretariat', Chandy told reporters during the weekly cabinet briefing here.

Quoting state intelligence department, media had reported the matter last week.

When asked about the report, Chandy said 'I also saw the report." But, asserted that no documents on the water sharing dispute had been leaked.

The state's interest on water sharing issue had not been compromised while reaching an agreement on water sharing from Aliyar river under Paramikulam-Aliyar River project with Tamil Nadu, Chandy said when asked about criticism that Kerala failed to protect its interest during the ministerial level talks on the matter held here on April 28.

'We started getting water from Sunday last onwards. We were not getting water till then', Chandy pointed out.

During the talks, Tamil Nadu agreed to release 100 cusecs water from Aliyar to Chittorrpuzha in drought affected Palakkad district while Kerala consented to release 40 cusecs water to Coimbatore from Siruvani river.