Farmers celebrate Periyar level reaching 142-ft mark

Offer their felicitations to the State government, Jayalalithaa

Collector L. Subramanian addressing farmers’ grievances day meeting at theCollectorate in the city on Tuesday. Photo: S. James

Farmers from the district celebrated water level in Mullaiperiyar dam reaching 142 feet at the monthly farmers’ grievance meeting held at the Collectorate here on Tuesday.

The farmers garlanded a picture of Colonel John Pennycuick who built the dam and paid floral tributes to the picture and distributed sweets to the officials and the people present.

Representatives from various farmers’ associations in the district offered their felicitations to the State government and former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

During the meeting, however, farmers from the areas in and around Melur, Melur extension and Tirumangalam complained that there was no water in the tanks in their villages, which seriously affected planting activities.

“Water has not yet reached the ‘ooranis’ and tanks in our areas. Despite the Public Works Department officials claiming they have been taking measures, water has not been properly regulated and diverted,” alleged farmers from the tail-end areas of Tirumangalam which has over 80 tanks.

Collector L. Subramanian said despite recent rainfall, the district was still short of 80 mm rainfall against the average requirement of 815 mm of rainfall this year.

“We are focussing on helping farmers with irrigation activities and have been diverting water to agriculture fields,” he stated.

With the recent rains having filled up Madakulam tank to an extent, farmers near that area submitted a petition to the Collector urging the district administration not to hand over the tank to the Fisheries Department as it might be used by private companies for fishing activities.

They asked for steps to be taken to convert the tank into an effective summer storage for water.

Farmers from Usilampatti said work on a hanging bridge near Uttapanayakanur under 58 canal scheme had been held up for long.

While PWD officials said shortage of workers had let to a delay in the construction, the farmers themselves offered to help with bringing in workers from their areas.

Mr. Subramanian asked officials from the PWD to meet the farmers of the area soon and arrive at a consensus about the same.