Kerala nominates Ashutosh Dash on Mullaperiyar dam panel

Kerala has nominated Ashutosh Dash, former Chief Engineer, Odisha, as its nominee on the Independent Panel of Experts (IPoE) on the Mullaperiyar dam.Following Kerala’s protests in June over what it termed the “unilateral” decision of the National Dam safety Authority (NDSA) to remove its nominee from the panel, the NDSA had apparently written to the State to nominate an expert to represent it on June 25.Mr. Dash is a former Chief Engineer and a former Special Secretary to the Odisha government, Kerala Water Resources Department sources said. The NDSA was informed about the State’s nomination last week, they said.The NDSA, in line with the provisions of the Dam Safety Act, 2021, had created the IPoE comprising five members for carrying out the Comprehensive Dam Safety Evaluation of the Mullaperiyar dam on January 6.While the removal of Kerala’s nominee T.K. Sivarajan had sparked protests by the State government, Minister of State for Jal Shakti Raj Bhushan Choudhary informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday that “one of the members of the IPoE, who had been nominated by the Government of Kerala, expressed his inability to continue as a member of the panel due to personal reasons.”It was in this context that the NDSA nominated another expert in his place, the Minister said in reply to a question posed by John Brittas, MP.The CDSE is a statutory exercise mandated under the Dam Safety Act, 2021, and has to be completed by December 2026. Published - July 27, 2026 07:01 pm IST