TIRUPPUR: A long pending demand of farmers, Water Users' Association (WUA) presidents have been included in the Joint Monitoring Committee (JAC) set up to prevent water theft in the Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) canal.
Sources said the joint monitoring committees have been formed under the leadership of revenue divisional officers (RDO) to prevent water theft in the main canal and branch canals of the PAP. In Tiruppur district, the committees are headed by Udumalaipet, Dharapuram, and Tiruppur RDOs, and officials from the revenue, water resources, TNEB and police departments.
However, a section of farmers in Tiruppur district unsatisfied with JMC, continued to insist that WUA presidents should be included in the monitoring committees, and requested the Tiruppur collector in this regard.
In this context, RDO of Dharapuram and JMC's Dharapuram Division Head A Felix Raja in his order said, "Based on the orders issued by the collector, the WUA presidents have been included in JMC with a list of officers already ready with them."
PAP Vellakoil Branch Canal Water Conservation Movement president P Velusamy said, "The existing JMC has not been able to prevent water theft in PAP. Hence, we have been urging the collector and WRD to include WUA leaders in the JMC for a long time. Currently, leaders of WUA have been included under four distribution committees of PAP. They should be included in the remaining five distribution committees soon. We believe water theft can be prevented to an extent, if WUA leaders make appropriate efforts."
"The restriction that monitoring only within the boundaries of the distribution is allowed should be removed. WUA presidents should be allowed to monitor all canals under PAP," he added.
Tiruppur district president of Tamil Nadu Coconut Farmers Association S Paramasivam said, "As for PAP, there are nine distribution committees and 134 water users' associations under the project committee. This is a good move as WUA leaders are now being included in the JMC, as they can easily identify the places where water theft is taking place."