As political parties and voluntary groups in Kerala intensified protests on Mullaperiyar Dam issue in kerala, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepped in on Tuesday and met four delegations from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, indicating that a meeting of Chief Ministers of both states would be convened soon to find an amicable solution.

MPs from Tamil Nadu and Central and state ministers from Kerala sought the Prime Minister’s immediate intervention on the issue.

PM did not give any assurance to representatives from both states, but listened patiently to their views and said he will talk to Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on the issue.

“The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh  heard us patiently. We submitted a memorandum to him in this regard. He listened to our views. He said he would talk to Water Resources Minister and ask him to work on a meeting of Chief Ministers of both states,” Virudunagar Congress MP Manick Tagore told reporters.

The Congress and DMK delegations from Tamil Nadu, which met Singh separately, accused political parties in Kerala of misleading people on safety of Mullaperiyar Dam and called their actions ‘false propaganda’.

However, the delegations from Kerala said they were for ‘open talks’ with the neighbouring states and that they will not oppose a third party intervention to decide the operations of a new dam, if it is allowed to construct it in the place of existing one.

“If Tamil Nadu has any apprehension over the operation of a new dam… we are willing to leave such matters and rest of other things to a third party – whether it is Supreme Court or a political establishment like Prime Minister. Let us construct a new dam,” Kerala Revenue Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said.

Normal life was disrupted in four vulnerable districts, including Idukki, where the 116-year-old dam is located, as BJP and Kerala Congress(M) separately called for a dawn-to- dusk hartal.

In Thiruvananthapuram, opposition CPI (M)-led LDF decided to mobilise thousands of activists and supporters to forge a ‘human wall’ from Mullaperiyar to Kochi on December 8 to highlight the people’s concern over the threat posed by the dam.

The LDF state committee also asked the UDF government to convene an urgent assembly session for adopting a resolution to reinforce Kerala’s stand on the new dam.

Congress leaders led by state party chief Ramesh Chennithala submitted a memorandum to Governor M.O.H. Farook highlighting the need for a new dam and to restrict the water level to 120 feet.

Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said in Delhi that Singh told central ministers from Kerala that a meeting of two chief ministers would be convened to try and arrive at a solution to the long standing dispute.