Accusations of rampant water theft from irrigation ponds and corruption allegations came up during the special grievances redressal meeting convened by the district administration for farmers, here on Friday.
S.R. Madhusoothan, a farmer from Valavadi and also the district president of All India Kissan Sabha, made an accusation that some farmers and industrialists at Dhali, Ammapathi and a few other areas were illegally taking away water from irrigation ponds falling under the command area of Thirumoorthy Dam.
“They are selling the water drawn from the ponds through pipelines laid without consent. The authorities concerned are yet to act on our complaints regarding the issue,” he said.
The farmers were of the view that unless the district administration acts swiftly, irrigation activities could get severely affected this summer. Another set of farmers wanted the intervention of the Collector and other senior revenue officials to end corruption in the Survey Department.
Their accusation was that some Survey Department officials were asking bribe whenever the farmers have to either carry out partition of the land to the family members or when having border disputes with the owner of the adjacent land.
“The officials are asking for huge amounts to ‘carry out’ survey that too from small and marginal farmers whose incomes these days are very limited,” pointed out the farmers.
