More than thousand men and women from a number of villages in Virudhunagar, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram districts staged a road roko on the newly opened Madurai to Rameshwaram four-lane highway here on Saturday demanding water from the Vaigai to the Lower Kiruthumal Basin.
Raising slogans against the Public Works Department for mismanagement of water resources that led to the ‘death’ of the Kiruthumal river, they urged the Tamil Nadu government to issue necessary orders to secure rights for water from the Vaigai to farmers in the Lower Kiruthumal Basin.
Thol. Thirumavalavan, leader of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, who spoke at the protest, said that people from arid villages who are dependent on water from the Kiruthumal river were being denied water and justice for the past several years.
“The PWD can no more turn a blind eye towards their demands,” he said.
Seeman, leader of Naam Tamilar Katchi, blamed the PWD and successive governments for gross mismanagement of water bodies in Tamil Nadu which, he said, was historically renowned for water management.
He said that water was increasingly becoming a commodity with corporates making a profit with the support of governments.
Basheer Ahmed, State president, National League, said that 46 tanks and 15,000 acres of land in three districts are dependent on water from the Kiruthumal.
“We are not demanding water for irrigation. Our request is for drinking water. Even that is being denied despite ample water in the Vaigai dam,” he said.
R. Jeyachandran, secretary of Vaigai-Kiruthumal River Irrigation Farmers’ Association, said that the Tamil Nadu government must devise a permanent solution to the problem.
“Apart from cleaning up the Kiruthumal, the government must ensure annual share of water to us from the Vaigai. They must reassess the demand for Madurai district as agricultural land has shrunk due to urbanisation and allot excess water to us,” he said.
Urging the government to immediately release water, he said that a protest would be organised by the people at the PWD office in Tallakulam on Wednesday if their demand was not met by then.
“If the government continues to ignore us, we will go for gherao protest on a daily basis,” he added.
Huge posse of police were deployed on Viraganoor junction to avoid any untoward incident during the protest.
Though it was staged as a road roko, traffic was not affected as the new road had little vehicular movement.
