Complaints of indiscriminate discharge of industrial effluents into the water bodies and insufficient water for irrigation in various places under PAP canal system, among a few other issues, dominated the proceedings of the grievances redress meeting which the district administration conducted for the farmers here on Wednesday.
Commercial purposes Illegal drawing of groundwater for commercial purposes, too, was raised sub a concern by the agrarian community.
K.C.M. Balasubramanian, a retired agriculture economist and a progressive farmer, called upon the district administration to be stern in dealing with the repeated incidents of indiscriminate discharge of untreated industrial effluents into the tributaries of River Noyyal, which eventually get merged with the main river.
“Unless stringent action was taken against the violators, the entire ecology of River Noyyal will once again get affected,” he pointed out.
Some of the farmers raised the issue of wastes being dumped alongside the road that leads to Tirupur South Uzhavar Sandhai.
C. Manokaran, district secretary of Tamilaga Farmers’ Association, an apolitical forum, pointed out that only three out of the assured four rounds of water were released for irrigating the standing crops in Dharapuram, Udumalpet and Palladam blocks that fall under PAP canal system.
Crops affected “Due to this, many thousands of acres of standing crops have been affected with farmers raising maize, coconut and onion. The government should disburse compensation to the farmers,” he said.
Vachipalayam K. Durai, a farmer and also the secretary of Tirupur Groundwater Protection Movement, complained about the illegal drawal of groundwater from farm areas for manufacturing of bottled water.
Apart from District Collector G. Govindaraj, Joint Director of Agriculture M.K. Sherif and senior officials of various departments attended.
