TIRUPPUR: A section of farmers benefitting from the Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) want farmlands that have been converted into non-agricultural lands should not get water from the PAP ayacuts, and instead it should be distributed to other lands in the PAP ayacut area.
However, the chairman of PAP Planning Committee, an elected body, turned down the demand saying this is not possible as there are only 6,000 acres of non-agricultural lands as per the government data, and these are scattered.
GV Vivekanandan, the secretary of the PAP Farmers Welfare Association, said, “Under PAP, 4.35 lakh acres of agricultural lands under new and old ayacuts in Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts are receiving irrigation. About 25% of these lands are currently not in agricultural use, and have been converted for commercial purposes.
"These lands should be removed from the PAP ayacut system. If the PAP Planning Committee and the Water Resources Department do this, water shortage issues in PAP will be solved and even surplus water will be available.”
B Anbarasu, the joint secretary of the PAP Farmers Welfare Association, said, “The main canal and branch canals of the PAP are currently damaged, causing water wastage in many locations. Keeping this in mind, WRD should take steps to renovate the canals.”
Medical K Paramasivam, the chairman of the PAP Planning Committee, said, “It is true that farmlands under the PAP ayacut have been converted for commercial use, but there are not as many as mentioned by certain farmers. The government recently submitted information in a court case that around 6,000 acres may have been converted, and these lands are scattered. In some places, ayacut lands have been converted into plots.
"Although farmers have given land to wind farms in some places, they are still farming on that land and they urge us not to remove them from the ayacut water supply. Therefore, it is not possible to separately calculate the water provided to these lands. Also, we did not conduct any separate survey to identify the lands that are not under agricultural use.”
Further, he said it is not possible to increase water sharing to the Vellakovil branch canal from 130 cusecs to 160 cusecs currently.
“We are providing 130 cusecs of water to the Vellakovil branch canal instead of 100 cusecs. All the canals of the PAP are to be renovated soon, and a huge project is being readied to prevent water wastage,” Paramasivam added.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, farmers from Kangeyam and Vellakovil staged a protest in Kangeyam demanding 160 cusecs of water supply to Vellakovil branch canal.
A senior WRD official said, “For PAP, the planning committee is the decision-making body. We made the decisions when there was no planning committee. The farmers should work with the committee to fulfil their needs.”