The Communist Party of India has urged the State government to celebrate the birth anniversary of Sir Arthur Cotton, who, during the British regime, was instrumental in strengthening the Kallanai constructed by Chola Emperor, Karikala Cholan, across the Cauvery river.
In a press release, CPI Thanjavur North District secretary, M. A. Bharathi, said that the British engineer was astonished to note the manner in which the Chola Emperor had built the grand structure across the Cauvery in the Second Century A.D. itself.
He adopted the Chola-era technique to put up the base for the check dam in the sandy riverbed while constructing check dams across the river Cauvery at Mukkombu in 1835-36 to regulate the flow of water in Cauvery and Coleroon rivers.
He was instrumental in the construction of check dams-cum-regulators at Anaikarai and Lower Anicut across Coleroon river and across the branches of Cauvery river - Vennar and Vettar in the delta. The British engineer also used the Chola-era engineering technique to build check dams across Godhavari and Krishna rivers in the neighbouring States during the British period, he added.
In order to remember the efforts that were taken by Sir Arthur Cotton in reviving the age-old water management facility that had come up at Kallanai in the second Century A. D., Mr.Bharathi urged the Tamil Nadu government to declare and celebrate the British engineer’s birth anniversary which falls on May 15 as a State function.
