A demonstration organised at Thisaiyanvilai on Monday by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam against “desertion” of a river-linking project brought people from various walks of life from this region together and sent a message to the State government that the shelved project should be resumed at the earliest.
After digging the linking channel up to Moolaikkaraipatti from Vellankuzhi (about 45 km) to take surplus water of the Tamirabharani by linking Karumaeniyar and Nambiyar with the perennial river, the work had been stopped due to non-availability of funds.
The public deem this project as their ‘only saviour’ to bail them out from a drought-like situation every year and seawater incursion into their area.
Hence, they came under one umbrella ahead of the Lok Sabha polls last year to agitate against this stalling of the work after executing 50 per cent of the project.
Demanding the resumption of the stalled third and fourth phases of the scheme, farmers of Nanguneri, Thisaiyanvilai, Radhapuram and Sattankulam organised a demonstration in January 2014 after the police denied permission for their proposed hunger strike protest.
The DMK, which is spearheading the agitation, demanded the early completion of the project as the delay had “increased the project cost from Rs. 369 crore to Rs. 900 crore” now.
“Nobody is opposed to this project as only the floodwater is going to be diverted to the dry regions such as Nanguneri, Thisaiyanvilai and Sattankulam. Even as most of the irrigation tanks in these areas are yet to reach their maximum capacity, several thousands of cusecs of floodwater of Tamirabharani has been wasted this year. Therefore, we want this project to be completed at the earliest,” said M. Appavu, former MLA of Radhapuram constituency, who was presiding over the protest said.
DMK office-bearers S. Gnana Diraviyam, M. Joseph Belsi, G. Kesavan, ‘Samoogai’ Murali, T. Selvaraj and others spoke.
