TIRUNELVELI: After Chief Minister MK Stalin ordered a trial run of the surplus water in the canal dug under the Thamirabarani-Karumeniyar-Nambiyar river-linking project, assembly speaker M Appavu released Thamirabarani water into the canal in Vellankuli on Sunday. In a statement, the district administration said the river-linking project announced by the late Chief Minister M Karunanidhi in 2008 would carry 2,765 mcft surplus water from Thamirabarani to rainfed areas in Palayamkottai, Nanguneri and Radhapuram constituencies of Tirunelveli district and Thiruvaikundam and Tiruchendur constituencies of Thoothukudi district.
"As many as 23,040 hectare of farm will get irrigation facilities with this project in 50 villages of two districts, where about 252 ponds will also get water. Since the north east monsoon has intensified, the chief minister discussed it with the WRD minister Durai Murugan and officials and ordered release of water to the canal from the Kannadian surplus water channel. The river-linking project was planned to be implemented in four phases. The final phase is about to be completed. As of now, the canal for 75.2 km has been dug," the district administration said. Based on his order, assembly speaker Appavu released the water in the Vellankuli area.
Meanwhile, the chief minister appointed the senior IAS officers as monitoring officers to speed up the rescue operation in the southern districts. The officers are S Nagarajan for Kanniyakumari district, R Selvaraj for Tirunelveli district, P Jothi Nirmala for Thoothukudi district and Shunchonngam Jatak Chiru for Tenkasi district. Apart from this, Stalin also appointed the four other IAS officers--K Prakash, P Ponnaiah, Kiran Gurrala and S Sivarasu-- to handle the situation in urban local bodies. "90 personnel of State Disaster Response Force have been sent to Kanniyakumari and Tirunelveli districts while 50 personnel have been sent to Thoothukudi district," a statement from the Chief Minister's Office read. The incessant heavy rainfall triggered panic-buying across Tirunelveli and Tenkasi districts.