Farmers made a fervent appeal to the administration to desilt the Vaigai dam and all the tanks in Madurai district by making use of the drought situation, at the monthly farmers’ grievance meeting here on Friday.
They also urged the district administration to allow them to use the desilted alluvial soil from waterbodies to improve fertility of their farmlands.
N. Palanichamy, President, Tamil Nadu Sugarcane Farmers’ Association, said that the proposal to desilt the Vaigai dam had been kept pending for many years and the government should make use of the prevailing drought situation to carry out the activity.
“It should act swiftly to desilt the dam before the next monsoon season, during which we hope there will be more inflow to the dam,” he said.
M. Tirupathi, a farmer from Kulamangalam, said that the district administration should also begin desilting and maintenance of all waterbodies and allow farmers to take the desilted soil instead of allowing private vendors to use it.
Alleging that Public Works Department (PWD) was not helping farmers in taking the desilted alluvial soil, another farmer from Peraiyur said, “We are willing to submit specific documents relating to the vehicle that will be used for transporting the soil and the survey number of the land in which it will be used. PWD should help the farmers, who are already suffering a lot.”
Responding to the queries, PWD officials said that a detailed project report on desilting the Vaigai dam has already been submitted by WAPCOS Limited, the company which has been engaged for the work, to the State government and it was up to the government to decide now. On the request by farmers to take alluvial soil by desilting waterbodies in the district, K. Veluchamy, District Revenue Officer, advised PWD officials to help farmers instead of directing them to Mines Department, which need not be involved in this.
The farmers also appealed to the district administration to remove Prosopsis juliflora (seemai karuvelam) growth in the district on a war-footing with the cooperation of various organisations and farmers, who are interested to help.
Farmers also expressed concern over lack of communication regarding the visit of central government committee.
“They had not visited many places, particularly areas surrounding Kottampatti where the impact to coconut trees was heavy,” Mr. Palanichamy said.
However, Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao assured that the district administration was taking elaborate arrangements to collect precise data on the drought impact from every village.
Farmers also felicitated Mr. Rao for having received an award from the President of India for the exemplary work by the district administration in creating voter awareness.
