MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday granted a week's time to the state government to submit a status report on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking direction to ensure 120 days water supply from Vaigai dam to Melur taluk in Madurai.
The litigant B Stalin, a resident of Ettimangalam village in Melur, stated that the water released from Periyar dam flows through Peranai channel and reaches the Vaigai dam. Subsequently, it gets distributed with the help of Kallandhiri regulator and then reaches tail-end areas like Melur taluk, where around 1,15,000 acres of land depends on this water for cultivation.
However, Stalin alleged that the authorities arbitrarily reduced the number of days of water release from 120 to 90 days, which is not sufficient to meet the water requirement of the Melur farmers. He added that if the situation continues, farmers would not be able to carry out agricultural activities and the farmlands will turn into real estate sites.
Claiming that the present storage capacity of Periyar and Vaigai dams are enough to distribute water for 120 days and that even in case of shortage, the officials of Periyar Vaigai basin are authorised to draw water well within the credit limit of the dam for emergency needs of farmers, Stalin sought the above direction. During the hearing, the government counsel sought time to file a report, following which a bench of justices D Krishnakumar and R Vijayakumar adjourned the case to next week.