Left parties ask PM Manmohan Singh to convene a meeting on Mullaperiyar Dam issue

NEW DELHI: Two Left parties today asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convene a meeting of the Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala for an amicable resolution of the Mullaperiyar Dam issue.

" The situation demands your immediate intervention. Since it is an inter-state dispute, it is appropriate, we believe, that you have to take an initiative to call a meeting of both Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala to find an amicable solution keeping in view the interests of both states," CPI(M) and CPI MPs told Singh at a meeting in Parliament House.

In a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister, the MPs warned that delay on this could "worsen the situation, adversely impacting the existing good neighbourly relations" between the two states.

Those who met Singh were D Raja, Lingam (both CPI), T K Rangarajan and P R Natarajan (both CPI-M).

They said the Mullaperiyar issue had become one of "contention and conflict" between Tamil Nadu and Kerala, saying various sections of people and political parties were agitating on both sides, "justifying their respective positions".