MADURAI: The State Government on Friday informed the Madras High Court Bench here that it had constituted a committee of experts from Anna University, as directed by the court on December 1, to study whether drawing water from a check dam above Thirparappu falls in Kanniyakumari district for supplying drinking water to two taluks would affect the irrigation requirements of two other taluks in the same district.
When a public interest litigation petition related to the issue came up for hearing before a Divsion Bench of Justices A. Selvam and P. Kalaiyarasan on Friday, Special Government Pleader M. Govindan informed the court that the committee had already been constituted and a report was awaited from it. After recording his submission, the judges adjourned the hearing on the case to June 8 for receipt of the committee’s report.
According to the SGP, the Registrar of Anna University had constituted a committee comprising three experts from its Centre for Water Resources (CWR) on the basis of orders passed by the First Division Bench of former Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice S. Nagamuthu last year. CWR Director N.K. Ambujam, professor Basavaraj Veerana Mudgal and associate professor R. Saravanan were part of the committee.
While ordering constitution of the committee, the First Division Bench had observed that increasing number of conflicts over sharing of water for drinking and irrigation was a consequence of unplanned development with scant regard to traditional wisdom of ancestors who created scores of ponds and lakes to conserve water.
The orders were passed after hearing DMK MLA Mano Thangaraj, representing Padmanabhapuram constituency, who had impleaded himself as a party to the case and supported the PIL petitioner S. Manoharan’s stand that drawing water from the check dam above the falls for meeting the drinking water needs of Agastheeswaram and Thovalai taluks would affect farmers in Vilavancode and Kalkulam taluks.
The MLA told the First Division Bench that he was objecting to drawal of water straight from the check dam above the falls but had no objection to the Public Works Department and the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board drawing the water after allowing it to flow down from the check dam through two sluices by serving the irrigation and drinking needs of Vilavancode and Kalkulam Taluks besides recharging the groundwater table in those areas.
