More than 800 waterbodies in the district were being desilted to increase the storage capacity after the government allowed farmers to take silt, earth and gravel from the waterbodies to use them for enriching their agriculture fields and other domestic purposes.
After the government passed the GO on April 27, the district administration issued a gazette notification, allowing farmers to take 30 tractor loads or 90 cubic meters of silt and clay per acre of dryland and 25 tractor loads or 75 cubic meters per acre of wetlands. The government also allowed the farmers to take 10 tractor loads or not exceeding 30 cubic meters of earth, savudu and gravel for other domestic purposes.
After the district administration invited applications, a total of 9,600 farmers applied and permissions were granted for 8,152 farmers and they had so far removed 7.41 lakh cubic meters of silt, earth, savudu and gravel from the water bodies, Collector S. Natarajan said.
Desilting was going in 54 ‘kanmais’ and 762 ‘ooranies’ and after completion of the desilting, the storage capacities of the waterbodies would be considerably enhanced, the Collector said.
“We are hopeful of harvesting a good amount of rainwater during the south-west and north-east monsoons this year,” he said.
The government allowed the farmers to desilt the waterbodies with the twin objectives of enhancing the water holding capacity of the tanks and reservoirs and benefit the farmers with the silt, which was rich in nutrients and could be applied as natural manure to agriculture fields.
Following complaints that farmers misused the permission in some areas and sold the earth, savudu and gravel for commercial purposes with the connivance of contractors and politically influenced people, Mr. Natarajan inspected the desilting works on Saturday and ordered ‘levelling’ wherever the silt or earth was removed beyond the permissible limit.
Permissions would be withdrawn and the work stopped immediately if there were irregularities or violations of the guidelines, he warned.
A team of officials from Agriculture department would carry out 100% inspection from Monday, he said.
The district administration was also implementing the ‘kudimaramathu’, the traditional system, under which, user community was given free hand in cleaning minor tanks and supply channels.
