‘Shift proposed quarry site’

The Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association has appealed to the State government to shift the site for the proposed sand quarry at Oruvandhur.

In a statement here, Mahadhanapuram V.Rajaram and Gandhipithan, working president and secretary of the association respectively, said that the government had proposed to set up a sand quarry at Oruvandhur village in Mohanur taluk of Namakkal district. “The farmers’ associations have no objection to the setting up a sand quarry.”

But as the site that has been chosen for the quarry is close to the entry point of the North Bank canal, it might impede the flow of water for both crops and drinking water purposes.

Though officials explain that the flow of water would not be affected by the setting up of the quarry , farmers, “out of their experience”, contend that the current proposal would prove detrimental to the people.

They said that more than 24,000 acres of land in Thottiyam and Musiri taluks is being irrigated by this North Bank canal.

The region has no borewell or well irrigation. The area is devoid of free power pumpsets too. The farmers are solely dependent on “fountains.”

If the quarry is to be set up as proposed, it would ruin agriculture by preventing the flow from fountains, they contended. When the sand is removed at Oruvandhur Vadugapatty, the water will go back to Cauvery and thus the lands in the region would not get sufficient water for irrigation.

“Thousands of acres of cash crops like banana and betel vines, which require considerable water, would be left high and dry without water,” they lamented.

They pointed out that unrest prevailed in the Kattuputhur-Thottiyam areas when the State government tried to set up a sand quarry at Oruvandhur where there is an infiltration well for the Erumaipatty Combined Drinking Water Scheme.

Hence, the farmers have announced that they would stage a demonstration in front of the Taluk Office, Thottiyam, on Friday (February 8).