Farmers union calls for judicious use of available water

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The Thamizhaga Cauvery Vivasayigal Sangam has called for judicious use of water available at the Stanley Reservoir in Mettur.

Talking to the media in Tiruvarur on September 1, association general secretary P.R. Pandian urged the Tamil Nadu government to ensure that the water released from Mettur dam on Tuesday by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay was stored in lakes, tanks, and other waterbodies in the delta region.

District-level committees comprising officials from Revenue, Water Resources, Agriculture and Police departments should be formed to oversee the operation of storing the water released from Mettur.

Steps should be taken to distribute the water, thus stored, to agriculture fields after a fortnight to irrigate the mid-term samba crop.

Urging the Chief Minister to withdraw the Water Resources Department’s announcement that water would be released for about 45 days, he said it was against the practice of utilisation of water available at Mettur and the present government should realise the fact that Mettur water could be utilised either directly or indirectly to irrigate around 25 lakh acres of land.

Registering its dissent over the 45-day water release announcement, the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers Protection Association has pointed out that the rivers and other water courses in delta had already gone dry since the Stanley Reservoir’s shutters were not lifted on the customary date of June 12 this year.

Expressing doubts over the chances of water from Mettur reaching the tailend areas, association secretary Sundara Vimalanathan exhorted the State government to take legal steps to avail the overdue and monthly share of water from Karnataka dams.

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