KARAIKAL: With water from the Cauvery expected to be distributed for the cultivation of Kuruvai paddy, the District Rural Development Authority (DRDA) on Tuesday began desilting channels in Karaikal district under the MGNREGS. Puducherry Transport Minister S Chandira Priyanga flagged off the works at a channel in a Kottucherry commune.
According to sources, there are around 300km of minor channels, also called commune channels that are maintained by the DRDA. Since these channels are narrow, they cannot be accessed by machines and as a result are dependent on manual labour for desilting.
Besides these, there are 120km of major channels falling under the purview of the Public Works Department (PWD) that can be accessed and desilted by machines owing to their width. Farmers have requested the PWD to begin works in major channels to ensure complete water distribution in time for Kuruvai.
A senior PWD official told TNIE, "We will begin desilting works in the channels under our maintenance in a week." Farmers, however, are sceptical about properly desilting the minor channels using human workforce. PG Somu, a farmer representative said,
"Most people employed under MGNREGS are above age 50. We are concerned if the desilting would be done properly, so we feel the PWD should step up and desilt commune channels as much as possible instead of relying on the DRDA."