Farmers laid a siege to the Public Works Department office here on Monday, demanding release of water for irrigating the double crop area.
According to the farmers, water should be released for the double crop area of over 45,000 acres between Peranai and Kallandiri on or after June 1 as and when the Periyar credit touched 4,000 mcft.
“Despite the storage crossing 4,100 mcft on August 8, water has not been released to help us with our farming activities till date,” said G. Murugan of Periyar Irrigation Planning Committee.
“We have been appealing to the PWD officials and the district administration to release water at the earliest since there has been good rain in the district. Combined with the rain, drawing of water from the dam can be less and we can effectively carry out farming activities,” he added.
The farmers also said despite meetings with the PWD officials on August 18 and August 20, they were not informed of when water would be released.
According to a petition submitted by them, farmers said that the officials had expressed doubts over the availability of water for farming activities if they released water from the dam then.
“We had then assured the officials that we would take responsibility for crop shortage in the event of inadequate availability of water. We hoped that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa would announce the date of release of water during her recent visit to Madurai. But, we are disappointed as no announcement was made,” they said.
“A few officials now told us that we will have to wait till the storage touches 6,000 mcft after which water will be released for both the single and double crop areas. We are concerned that we might not get adequate water then,” said R. Ramasamy, secretary of the water users association from Vadipatti.
The farmers met PWD engineers and submitted a petition urging them to expedite release of water. “The officials have told us that our concerns have been communicated to the Chief Minister and we can expect water release this week,” they said.
