Urging the district administration to release water in the Lower Bhavani Project (LBP) canal as per the government order, failing which a compensation of ₹30,000 per acre has to be provided to affected farmers, members of Keel Bhavani Pasana Pathukappu Iyakkam, submitted a petition submitted to the Revenue Divisional Officer in Erode on Friday, April 5, 2024.
Farmers said the government had issued an order on January 5, 2014, to release water from the Bhavanisagar dam into the canal for the second crop season from January 7, 2024 to May 1, 2024, as per five wetting schedules of water regulation. Based on this order, farmers had cultivated crops on 1,03,500 acres and also on 45,000 acres in the Dharapuram Cut areas. Due to poor water storage at the dam, water was released only for four wetting schedules while the Water Resources Department (WRD) has said that water will not be released for the fifth wetting schedule. Hence, discharge of water was stopped on April 3. “If water is not available, sesame, groundnut and other crops will wither and cause huge losses to the farmers,” the petition said.
Farmers said they had submitted a petition to the WRD on March 3, 2024, urging it to release water for other ayacut areas only after ensuring water availability for LBP ayacut areas. But, water was released for other ayacut areas, which went against the order of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal 2007, they said and wanted the water release to be stopped. Also, they oppose use of water from the dam for the trail run of the Avinashi – Athikadavu water project. They wanted compensation to be given to farmers if crops wither due to shortage of water.