Uncertainty follows second crop of paddy cultivation in areas coming under river basins of Gayathripuzha and Chitturpuzha in Chittur Taluk of Palakkad district with Tamil Nadu refusing to release stipulated amount of irrigation water from the inter-State Parambikulam-Aliyar Project.
Farming community in the region alleges that Tamil Nadu continues to divert PAP water by constructing four illegal check dams.
Representatives of the irate farming community will meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday along with local MLA K. Krishnankutty and demand his direct intervention to resolve the issue.
Farmers to meet CM
The farmers have decided to urge the Chief Minister to cut short the quantity of water released from Siruvani Dam to meet drinking water needs of Coimbatore city if Tamil Nadu refuses to address their grievances. The farmers will also meet the assembly sub-committee on inter-State water sharing to press for realising the demand.
Addressing a meeting of the advisory committee on Gayathripuzha and Chitturpuzha irrigation projects, additional district magistrate S. Vijayan had informed that Meenkara reservoir had only 35.6ft and Chulliyar 35.5ft water that can meet irrigation requirements hardly for 28 days.
In the case of Walayar reservoir, it has 59.75ft of water to meet the demands for 14 days. The second crop of paddy in the region requires continuous irrigation facilities for at least for 60 days.
“Tamil Nadu must release at least three tmc feet of water from Aliyar dam to Chitturpuzaha for the second crop of paddy cultivation under PAP agreement. We will urge the Chief Minister to take up the issue directly with his Tamil Nadu counterpart,” said Mr. Krishnankutty.
According to him, Parambikulam reservoir has 10.940 tmc feet of water as storage now and Aliyar 1.8 tmc feet of water. “Instead of meeting conditions of the project agreement, Tamil Nadu authorities is diverting PAP water through illegal checkdams to Thirumurthy Dam for use there,” he alleged.
The PAP agreement entitles Tamil Nadu to release 7.25 tmc feet of water annually to Chittur taluk for compensating the diversion of the Bharathapuzha water. But it has given only 2.350 tmc feet of water in the last water year, which began on July 1 and ended on November 1, the officials of the Joint Water Regulatory Board (JWRB) of PAP said.
Joint water regulatory board deputy director Sudheer Padikkal has informed that the issue of non-releasing of PAP water was taken up with the Tamil Nadu authorities last month. But so far, no reply was given by them.
As Tamil Nadu has a storage of nearly 11 tmc feet of PAP water, the neighbouring State can easily divert three tmc feet of water to the region to support the second crop of paddy, he said.
