ERODE: Water theft by a farmer resulted in drinking water shortage in nearly 500 households of Murungathozhuvu panchayat in Chennimalai of Erode for nearly two years. Panchayat officials detected the theft recently and lodged a complaint against the farmer on Sunday.
According to sources, water is supplied from the Cauvery Joint Water Project to 12,000 people living in the panchayat union. Every day, 1.35 lakh litres of water is drawn from the river for the purpose. However, for the past two years, there has been a drinking water crisis in Murungathozhuvu.
On July 18, when the residents were facing acute water shortage, the farmland of Periaswamy, a farmer in the village, was seen brimming with water. When panchayat president Prabha Tamilselvan and officials came to know about this, they held an inspection and found out that the farmer had been stealing water by linking the pipes to his field with the main pipeline at two places.
Prabha Tamilselvan told TNIE, "After we found out about the illegal pipe line, we questioned Periyasamy and he said that he had set up the illegal connection two years ago. Only then we realised that the water shortage was because of this."
Periyasamy used the water to irrigate his six acres of farmland. “On July 18, he forgot to close the valve of the illegal lines which led to the flooding. We don’t know how much water he had stolen in the past two years. But, because of him, around 500 households suffered water shortage. We had set up borewells in two places, and also purchased water in tankers to distribute it to people. “
The panchayat lodged a complaint with the Chennimalai police and a case was registered on Monday,
The FIR stated, “Periyasamy created a situation that led to shortage of drinking water supply to people living in more than 13 villages under Murungathozhuvu panchayat for more than two years”. The panchayat president has also written a letter to the TWAD Board seeking action against the farmer. “Our panchayat has a storage capacity of 1.35 lakh litres of drinking water. But water is never available to the full capacity. We distribute the available drinking water equally to the villages,” she said. TWAD officials said, “Steps would be taken to levy fines through the local administration concerned.”