PALAKKAD: The LDF Government waxing eloquent about measures to augment paddy farming in the state has ironically dealt a death blow to the granary of Kerala by awarding a tender for Rs 33.3 crore to lay a pipeline to the Kinfra Industrial Park from the Malampuzha dam.Why the alarm? Sample this: The Agriculture Department data for the second crop in 2016-17 shows 19,000 hectares of the total 42,000 hectares of paddy fields in Palakkad district got dried up due to drought and non-release of water from the dam.
Worse, a direction was issued by the department asking farmers not to undertake cultivation in another 13,000 hectares due to severe dip in water level in the dam due to a scant rainfall. The managing director of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA), A Shainamol, on September 9, 2017, accorded administrative and technical sanction for laying pipeline from the Malampuzha dam to the Kinfra Industrial Park and gave nod to set up a pumping and booster station.
“Though the UDF Government took the decision in 2013, the tenders were floated now. The dam was constructed in 1956. The water from the dam was to be used for agriculture and drinking water purposes. According to a study by the Kerala Engineering Research Institute ( KERI) , there was 28 mm3 silt in the dam,” said Padmakumar, executive engineer of the Irrigation Department. At present, the water level in the dam is pegged at 111.7 m and the total capacity is 115.6 m. In the current scenario, water from the dam can only be released for 50 days this season, he said.
“The Supplyco procured the highest quantity of paddy (39 per cent) from Palakkad in 2015-16, followed by Alappuzha (29 per cent) and Thrissur (15 per cent). The second crop, which constitutes the bulk of paddy produced in the district is totally dependant on the North East monsoon and the water from the dam,”said Arumugha Prasad, Paddy marketing officer of Supplyco.
In 2015-16, 1.2 lakh tonnes were procured by Supplyco from Palakkad for the second crop. It further fell to 25,332 tonnes in 2016-17 due to the dearth of water for irrigation, he said.
“We are mulling a district-level convention of representatives of all political parties and paddy polder committees to protest against the pipeline project, said G Sivarajan, chairman of the Anti-pipeline Samara Samithi. A protest meeting will be held at the Five Lights Jn in Palakkad town on November 3, he said.
Boban Mattumantha, the convener of the Samara Samithi, said in the last season the Pudussery panchayat had served a notice on Pepsi to stop drawing water from the borewells for production during the summer months. The district administration also issued a stop memo. Once water is supplied to the industries in the Kinfra park, Pepsico can go to court challenging such stop memos in future, he said.
“The UB group utilises 5 lakh litres per day and the Empee Distilleries draws 33,000 litres at the rate of Rs 40 for 1,000 litres from the dam. The units had entered into a long-term agreement decades ago, as they had chipped in for the construction of a tank and other allied works. Therefore, the industries in the Kinfra park will also forge such deals with the Irrigation Department, making it difficult to cancel once inked,” said A C Sidharthan, joint convener.