A meeting of farmers organised on Monday under the auspices of Bharat Krishak Samaj(BKS), appealed to the Central government to end the Cauvery waters impasse at the earliest by passing a law under Article 262 (b) of the Constitution.
Explaining how this could help end the vexed issue, S.Gurusamy, State president of the BKS, said a special law could be enacted by Parliament under this provision which would remove the litigations pending before courts and arrive at a solution through the path of conciliation between the States.
“Political resolution through dialogue using Art 262 (b) of the Constitution and Entry 56 of the Union List would be the ideal mode of approaching the issue as tribunal awards have failed to solve such imbroglios in the country so far,” he added.
Mr.Gurusamy also urged the political parties to desist from using the Cauvery issue as a “political instrument.”
Mahadanapuram V.Rajaram, working president of Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association, who painted a gloomy picture with regard to the 17-channel area where annual crops like banana, sugarcane, betel vine and turmeric are withering because of lack of water, said as early as in 2002 this issue was taken to the High Court.
Though the State government had claimed before the court that it was trying its best to provide water to this region, the major problem arose because of the unauthorised drawal below Mettur dam. Earlier, when 1,500 cubic feet per (cusecs) water is released from Mettur dam, at least 1000 cusecs would reach Mayanur. “Now hardly 300 cusecs reach Mayanur because of the unauthorised drawal of water.”
Though water is received from the Kabini at present, it would take at least 15 days for the Mettur dam to touch 95 feet against its full level of 120 feet. Even that won’t last even 45 days. He pointed out that for samba crop water requirement is 200 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) for which Mettur dam should surplus at least thrice.
He appealed to the State government to release at least 3,000 cusecs from Mettur dam to save the standing annual crops in the 17-channel region.
C.Vyapuri, president, United Farmers’ Association, pilloried the State administration and also the farmers for their failure to understand three major features of agriculture in Tamil Nadu. They have no idea of the crop pattern, environment factor and food habits, he lamented. Referring to the tail-end areas, he said originally whenever it rained in Coorg the water used to flow without impediment to Kaveripoompattinam before entering the sea. “This used to take just six days. Now it will take 60 days because of so many obstacles in between. Besides, the riverbed is so parched that most of the flow would be sufficient only to fill the aquifers.”
Puliyur Nagarajan, State vice president of the BKS, presiding, alleged that the district administration had failed to keep up its promise of releasing water in Uyyakkondan channel. Though the 17 chanels were given right to receive water for 11 months a year by the Britishers, this had totally been ignored.
Failure of the government to attend to the just plea of the 17-channel area farmers, whose annual crops are withering in thousands of acres, would lead to direct action by the affected agriculturists, he warned.
