Thiruvananthapuram: It was an eventful year for Kerala as the Congress-led UDF voted out the LDF while discovery of treasures in the vaults of the famed Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple drew worldwide attention to 'God's own country' even as tension with Tamil Nadu over the Mullaperiyar Dam escalated.
A gruesome stampede at Pulmedu near Sabarimala hill shrine on Makarsankranthi day claimed lives of 102 pilgrims, most of them from neighbouring Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Tempers over the long-pending dispute between Tamil Nadu and Kerala rose in December becoming a full-blown crisis for the governments on both sides. A series of mild tremors in the Idukki district where the 116-year-old dam is situated, created panic among the people living in the downstream areas.
Kerala wants a new dam to be built arguing that the existing structure is too weak. Tamil Nadu, however, holds that the dam is strong and Kerala's move was meant to annul the 999-year-old lease agreement between the two sides.
Water from Mullaperiyar is crucial for farming in five southern districts of Tamil Nadu.
The two-decade-old palmolein corruption scam continued to haunt Kerala, taking an unexpected turn with bureaucrat P J Thomas losing the coveted post of Central Vigilance Commissioner, as he is one of the accused in the case in his capacity as Food Secretary when the controversial deal took place in early 1990s when late K Karunakaran was chief minister.
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