TENKASI: Thanks to some administrative tangle, the Jambunathi canal-digging project, which aims to irrigate rainfed areas of 11 village panchayats in the district, is still at its nascent stage.
Though the previous AIADMK government had allocated Rs 41 crore for the project, a recent RTI reply received by T Mariappan, an activist, showed the water resources department (WRD) was still awaiting approval from the forest department to go ahead with the project. The forest department had stopped its preliminary works in August 2020.
The project, if materialised, could help irrigate thousands of acres of farmland using surplus water from the Ramnathi dam. Mariappan said, "The aim of the project is to irrigate around 4,050 acres of farmland located in Kalloorani, Sivanadanur, Thippanampatti, Ariappapuram, Avudaiyanur, Pethanadarpatti, Poolangulam, Vengadampatti, Therkumadathur, Keezha Kadayam, and Theertharapapuram panchayats. If the project is implemented, the surplus water from the Ramnathi dam will fill 21 tanks and recharge the groundwater table in 100 hamlets."
"The project's completion date was fixed as August 2022. However, there have been no signs of resuming the work in the past one-and-a-half year. In their RTI reply, the WRD officials said even though 70% of the private landowners who were approached had agreed to give their land for the project, no private land has been acquired so far," Mariappan claimed.
When contacted by TNIE, a WRD official, on condition of anonymity, said despite the involvement of ruling party politicians in the project, the forest department was refusing to give approval. "How can we start land acquisition without getting the approval? The State government should have got approval from the forest department when they allocated the funds," he added.
Speaking to TNIE, N Senthil Kumar, Conservator of Forests, and Field Director of the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, said the application from WRD was pending with the State Board for Wildlife. "The application was already cleared by various authorities at different levels. Now, it is in transition. After getting clearance from the State Board, it will have to be cleared by the National Board for Wildlife," he added.
According to the RTI reply, Rs 43.81 lakh of the fund allocated for the project has been spent so far for advertisement and other purposes.