VELLORE: Fearing that a twin purpose structure being built across the Palar in Kuppam region of Andhra Pradesh will completely stop the water flow downstream, a group of Vellore farmers who went to the border region on Monday appealed to the Tamil Nadu government to take action to stop the work immediately.
They claimed that the structure would serve as an overbridge and a reservoir, while saying that the AP government appeared to be taking advantage of the political instability in Tamil Nadu by going ahead with the work.
A C Venkatesan, district president of the Palar Protection Society who led the team, told Express that a ground level road across the Palar linking Vaniyambadi and Kuppam was being upgraded into an overbridge. "The Andhra Pradesh government has very intelligently planned to convert the bridge at Palar village near Kangundi town into a check dam by constructing sluices under it, so that the water can be stored when needed," he claimed.
He said enquiries with the construction staff revealed that the height of the bridge would be around 50 ft and as many as five sluices would be fixed under the bridge at a height of 20 ft from the ground level, so that around 20 ft of water could be stored in the river when needed.
He said the Andhra Pradesh government has already completed works of increasing the height of the existing check dams across the Palar in three locations between Pullur (entry point in Tamil Nadu) and Palar village in the forests areas in the past six months, when Tamil Nadu was in a state of flux after the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and ensuing political turmoil.
A new site was also identified near Noolgunda in the upstream for the construction of a new check dam across the Palar in the thick forests. Quoting locals, he said the work was likely to begin soon.
Venkatesan said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, the sitting MLA of Kuppam Assembly constituency, is under pressure due to the rise of the opposition YSR Congress in the region. In order to gain political mileage, Naidu has been wooing the constituency with several irrigation and road projects to make his constituency a role model in the State.
Naidu's dream project of linking Krishna with the water-starved Kuppam was also nearing completion. While several tanks in and around Kuppam have been kept ready for storage of the Krishna water, the excess water would be diverted to the Palar, which would be used as a storage reservoir at 22 locations where checkdams have been raised.
Venkatesan said many farmers in the Palar belt in AP, who are his friends, had confided that Naidu had given them free pump sets and electricity to lift water directly from the reservoirs formed across the Palar. The overbridge at Palar village is also part of the road expansion project in the constituency.