A flash road blockade by hundreds of farmers of Periyar single crop area in Melur seeking water for irrigating 85,000 acres of single crop area disrupted vehicular traffic on Madurai-Tiruchi highway for more than five hours on Monday.
Over 5,000 farmers and members of public participated in the road roko on the Madurai-Tiruchi highway at Melur protesting against the Public Works Department and the district administration for not heeding to their demand for release of water.
“Ours is the oldest ayacut of the Periyar dam water. But, this year the PWD officials convinced us that water would be released only for double crop area due to poor storage in the Periyar and Vaigai dams. But, now that the PWD had announced release of water for the extension areas in Theni district, we feel cheated,” M. Murugan, president of Periyar Single Crop Area Farmers’ Association.
He said that the district administration and the PWD officials had not taken action on the farmers’ repeated petitions seeking water for single crop.
Mr. Murugan said that the right over Periyar water for irrigation starts with Cumbum Valley, double crop and single crop. Only after these areas are irrigated, the surplus water can be given to the extension areas like Tirumangalam Main Canal, Periyar Main Canal Extension area, PTR and Thanthai Periyar canals.
“We know that there is shortage of water. But, we are more concerned about losing our rights to extension areas. If we allow it now, it can become a precedence,” Mr. Murugan said.
After the road traffic was brought to a halt for hours, the Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami announced that water would be released for the single crop area to meet the drinking water requirements of Melur area.
“We are not satisfied with the announcement. But, we gave up our protest considering that the passengers were affected and our right had been upheld,” he added.
