Farmers in Chittur taluk in the district are on the agitation path as Tamil Nadu continues to violate the inter-State Parambikulam-Aliyar Project (PAP) water-sharing agreement by refusing to keep a reserve of at least 3 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water in the Aliyar dam to support a second crop of paddy in over 30,000 hectares in the taluk.
Hartal plan
While there is an impression that the Chief Minister-level intervention scheduled for Wednesday can break the deadlock, an-all party meeting convened by three MLAs representing the taluk has decided to observe a hartal on Thursday if the talks failed to bring about any positive change in the given situation. As per information available from Thiruvananthapuram, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan would talk over phone to his Tamil Nadu counterpart Edappadi K. Palaniswami seeking steps to support the second crop in Chittur. Meanwhile, the Kerala Chief Secretary will meet his Tamil Nadu counterpart in Chennai on the day.
The meeting convened by MLAs K.V. Vijayadas, K. Krishnankutty and K. Babu has decided to organise a farmers’ march to the Siruvani dam near Mannarkkad, which supplies drinking water to Coimbatore city, if the neighbouring State continues with the violations. If the situation persists, vehicles from Tamil Nadu will be prevented from entering the State.
Second paddy crop
Without adequate storage at the Aliyar dam, the paddy farmers of Chittur taluk will not be able to keep the second crop safe during December and January. The storage in the Aliyar dam is just 1.6 tmcft. It is estimated that the Parambikulam dam and its feeders Peruvarippallam and Thunakadavu have a combined water storage of 5.5 tmcft.
As per the normal procedure, 3 tmcft should be released to the Aliyar dam from Parambikulam and the other two storages during November. The water thus stored in the dam should be released to the Chitturpuzha, a tributary of the Bharathapuzha, as and when required. Farmers say they are in need of at least 2 tmcft of water by the beginning of December to support the crop.
