Farmers and residents of Devarayaneri on the outskirts of the Tiruchi have urged the Public Works Department authorities to take expeditious steps to remove encroachments on the vast irrigation tank in their village.
A group of farmers, who petitioned the PWD officials in Tiruchi on Tuesday, alleged that as much as 200 acres of the sprawling tank spread over about 360 acres have been encroached upon by outsiders.
Claiming that the Devarayaneri was among the biggest tanks in Tiruchi district, D.R.Karuppasamy, who led the petitioners, said that the tank has been under encroachments over the past 40 years.
“The tank is fed by the Uyyakondan canal running from the Vazhavanthankottai tank. It also gets rain flows from jungle streams in Pudukottai district. It has a registered ayacut of about 600 acres,” Mr.Karuppasamy said and complained that despite repeated representations the authorities have failed to evict the encroachers.
According to Mr.Karuppasamy and other villages, about 18 acres of land near the tank was given as house site pattas for the ‘narikuravars’ who are settled at Devarayaneri several years back. Taking advantage of this, several persons started encroaching upon the tank. “The encroachers started extending the cultivation area with each passing year and currently about 200 acres is under encroachment,” Mr.Karuppasamy alleged.
Accusing the officials of failing to heed their representations and the High Court directives to remove encroachments from irrigation tanks, Mr.Karuppasamy wondered why the encroachments from the Devarayaneri tank were left untouched even though the authorities had recently carried out eviction drives on the Asoor, Thaeneripatti, Thuvakudi and Navalpattu tanks recently.
“The PWD officials had previously assured that the encroachments from our village tank will be removed. But they have not kept their word yet. If they fail to act, we will intensify our agitation,” said Mr.Karuppasamy.
When contacted, a PWD official said efforts were on to trace the original land records and steps would be taken to remove the encroachments soon.
