A group of farmers of Koyyathoppu and Posampatti on the outskirts of the city have joined hands to take up ‘kudimaramathu’, an age old practice of maintaining irrigation canals, by contributing themselves.
Since the farmers of Koyyathoppu and neighbouring villages could not make use of Cauvery water for the last few years to raise paddy due to accumulated silt and extensive growth of plants along the 4 km stretch of a branch canal of Old Kattalai Mettu Vaickal, they petitioned to the Tiruchi district authorities a few days ago to include the canal under the kudumarathu work. But, a senior official told them that it could be included only next year. Following this, the farmers came forward to desilt the canal on their own and began the work on Friday so as to make use of water flow in the Old Kattalai Mettu Vaickal.
As many as 50 farmers have been involved in the work. Within two days, they have completed desilting work for about 3 km. They set to complete the task within a few days.
Puliyur Nagarajan, president, farmers wing, Tamil Maanila Congress, said that the canal stretch had not been desilted for seven years and water flow had been affected due to silt accumulation. The collective work of farmers was highly commendable as it would irrigate about 500 acres in Koyyathoppu, Pasampatti and Maninagar, he added.
