The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to file a status report to a public interest litigation petition that sought a direction to the authorities to ensure water supply from Vaigai dam to Melur taluk for 120 days for the single crop region.
A Division Bench of Justices D. Krishnakumar and R. Vijayakumar sought the status report to the petition filed by B. Stalin of Melur. The petitioner said that the agricultural activities in the region was dependent on the water release from Vaigai dam. Water availability in Vaigai dam and Mullaperiyar dam was a main and predominant criteria to decide either to cultivate or not in the upcoming seasons and the water level in the dams had an impact on selecting the crop for cultivation, he said.
The change in the crop was not easy because of the requirement of funds and labour to make the land suitable for changed crop patterns. In most of the circumstances, the farmers kept the land uncultivated when the water release was not certain, he said.
Due to the failure of monsoon, the government had introduced new systems for calculating the share of water available at Vaigai and Periyar credit at Vaigai dam. One of the objectives of the government orders was to ensure timely water supply for agriculture, ensuring 120 days water supply to cater the needs of the farmers, he said.
The petitioner said that the authorities released water for 90 days alone which was not sufficient to meet the requirement of the farmers to harvest the single crop. The authorities arbitrarily reduced the water release from 120 days to 90 days.
The present storage of water at Vaigai dam and Mullaperiyar dam had enough for 120 days distribution of water, he said. The court adjourned the hearing by a week.
