In a startling revelation, veteran legislator PC George on Wednesday said politicians belonging to the CPI(M)-led LDF and Congress-led UDF own large farms and plantations in Dindigal, Theni and Ramanathapuram districts of Tamil Nadu which are all irrigated with water from the Mullaperiyar Dam.

“This is why they are harping on the demand of scientists to decommission the 130-year-old Surki dam located in the border district of Idukki in Kerala.

“The experts from IIT Delhi were shocked by the safety aspects of the Mullaperiyar dam and that is why they had demanded demolition keeping in mind the safety of four million people spread across five districts of Kerala,” said George, a seven-time MLA and a one-man army who is Kerala’s leading whistle blower against corruption.

Reacting to recent statements by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Irrigation Minister Roshy Augustine that the dam was safe, George said five legislative committees have come to know after discussions with experts that the dam was about to burst.

“This is a surki dam that was built in 1880, in the days when there was no cement. The lifespan of surki is only 50 years and every year the material is washed away by flood waters. You can imagine what would have happened to Mullaperiyar Dam in the last 80 years,” George said while referring to the statements of Vijayan and Augustine. He also said that the less said about the duo’s honesty, the better.

George said C Achutha Menon, the CPI Chief Minister during 1969-1977 was instrumental in giving away state rights over the dam to Tamil Nadu for reasons best known only to him. “Though Dewan of Travancore CP Ramaswamy Aiyer got the Tamil Nadu government to stop the generation of power from the Mullaperiyar water, it was Menon who squandered the profits of the former,” George said.

George, a senior BJP leader in Kerala, said the Tamil Nadu government has the list of all the Kerala politicians, bureaucrats and business barons who own plantations and estates in the lower river basins of that state.

“If the Kerala politicians go ahead with building a new dam in place of the obsolete Mullaperiyar dam, the Tamil Nadu government would drop their names and that would be the end of our politicians’ careers,” George said.

In a move that could send shockwaves through the Kerala political class, George said that if there is one person who can broker an amicable settlement over the Mullaperiyar dam, it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“He has all the details related to the dam. Let him call Vijayan and his Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin for a discussion and the duo would find it difficult to say no to whatever Modi decides,” George said.

The safety of four million residents is at stake in the districts of Kottayam, Idukki, Alappuzha, Ernakulam and Pathanamthitta.

“Kerala and Tamil Nadu had identified another site 1,300 feet downstream of the existing dam to build a new dam. But Kerala made a hasty retreat when it came time to act and this is a suspicious move,” George said.