TIRUCHY: As water released from the Mettur dam reached the Mukkombu barrage on Friday, there was little enthusiasm among farmers, who usually celebrate its arrival by showering flowers and paddy seeds.
A few farmers’ representatives, who gathered at Mukkombu, said they are not enthusiastic as the storage level in the Mettur reservoir is low and samba cultivation with the available water would not be feasible.
Water is typically released from Mettur dam on the customary date of June 12 every year for cultivation in the Cauvery delta. However, the southwest monsoon failed to bring timely rain in Cauvery catchment areas of Karnataka this year, resulting in inadequate inflow into the dam.
As a result, the farmers were unable to take up kuruvai cultivation fully by depending on Cauvery water. Even in the areas where cultivation is carried out using groundwater, farmers said they could not harvest the crop fully and suffered heavy losses.
The TN government released water from Mettur dam only after the surplus from Karnataka reservoirs was released into Cauvery, boosting the dam storage to 90 ft against its full reservoir level of 120 ft. Ayilai Sivasuriyan, district secretary of the TN Farmers Association affiliated to the CPI, said,
“As the available water would be sufficient for only 45 days, the farmers had urged the government to postpone the release until the end of September. Samba cultivation cannot be sustained without receiving the required share of Cauvery water from Karnataka.”
Despite objections from farmers, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay released water from the Mettur dam for Samba cultivation in the Cauvery delta on September 1, Ayilai Sivasuriyan alleged.
According to the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award and the Supreme Court judgment, Karnataka is required to provide 177.25 TMC of water annually. Of this, 86 TMC was due to TN between June and August, but the state has so far received not even 30 TMC, Ayilai claimed.
Vayalur N Rajendran, state treasurer of the farmers’ wing of the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), said, “The current release of 7,000 cusecs should be increased to 16,000 cusecs to ensure that Cauvery water reaches the tail-end areas of the delta region. The state should take steps to secure TN’s due share of water from the neighbouring state,” he urged.
Kanimozhi condemns arrest of protesting farmers
Chennai: DMK deputy general secretary and MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi on Friday condemned the arrest of farmers who had protested demanding the release of water for irrigation from Papanasam dam. She urged the government to address their demands and release 1,500 cusecs of water from the dam.
