TIRUPUR: Aiming to catch miscreants who steal water from the Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) canal, a group of farmers deployed a drone near Thirumurthi dam in Udumalaipet.
The farmers stated that using the the drone, which was operated along PAP canal for about seven km earlier this week, they spotted 10 places where water was being unlawfully sapped from the canal.
Speaking to TNIE, PAP Farmers Welfare Association Secretary N Vivekanadan said, "PAP canal is more than 124 km long and is designed to carry a discharge of water for irrigating an area of one lakh hectare in the district. But, evil-doers are stealing water from the canal and while we have often reported about it to the Public Works Department (PWD), no major breakthrough took place."
"The department even formed 12 patrol teams to inspect the section in the first week of February. Although there were good results, initially, but over a period of time, the teams became ineffective. There are many claims that PWD officials have colluded with powerful individuals with vested interests for stealing water," he alleged.
An official from PWD Department said, "I have seen the video. We used to shutdown the shutter once every 15 days. These people sap water that leaks from the dam. But, stealing the leaked water from the PAP canal is also illegal. I have deputed a team of engineers to visit the spots captured in the video."
"We will take appropriate action against violators as soon as possible. Besides, we have taken action against violators in the past few weeks as well. Two weeks ago, we inspected and found three persons stealing water from PAP canal and registered a complaint at Thali police station," he added.
However, Udumalai DSP Jayachandran was not amused that farmers had used a drone without permission.
"The police have not given permission to anyone to operate a drone during this curfew period. We will investigate and find out who used the drone without permission," he stated.