DHARMAPURI: Farmers in Harur have urged the state government to allocate funds to complete the Kumaran check dam across the Thenpennai River.
The Kumaran check dam project was proposed by the former AIADMK government in which a four-kilometre stretch of check dam would be constructed across the Thenpennai river in Kumarapatti at a cost of Rs 4.48 crore to alleviate the concern of water scarcity in the region. However, since its announcement, no efforts were made and the farmers have been urging the district administration and the state government to take steps to implement this project at the earliest.
P Selvakumar, a farmer from Harur, told TNIE, “The AIADMK government announced this scheme in 2019 and now it is almost five years and there has been no progress on the project. When this project was announced, some works had taken place but after the regime change, the project had seemingly been abandoned. This concerns the needs of the people especially those of the farmers. Hence, it must be implemented immediately.”
R Rajasekar, another farmer, said, “This was a water management project aimed at providing for the villagers in the area. Places like Mampatti, Itlapatti, Kumarampatti, and dozens of other villages would have benefited from this scheme. At least 700 acres of cultivation area would have been revived and most importantly it would have provided clean drinking water. So, this project must be implemented.”
When TNIE attempted to contact the PWD(WRO) officials, they were not reachable.