Farmers advocate for revised water diversion scheme in TN
The scheme envisages the diversion of Pandiyaru River to Moyyar River.
In a petition submitted to the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan by Tamilaga Vivasayigal Sangam on Friday, they claimed the modified scheme would be a finacially viable option too and would not face delays.
"A part of the Western Tamil Nadu, including Coimbatore and Tiruppur and a part of Erode, come under the rain shadow region. Also a major portion of the zone does not have any irrigation scheme. A proposal to divert west-flowing rivers in the Nilgiris Hill region into Tamil Nadu under the Pandiyaru-Punnapuzha Scheme has been discussed at different levels for more than 60 years," they said.
This project has not seen the light of the day as the project considered originally required the acceptance of Kerala government. Also successive Tamil Nadu state governments were not inclined towards such an irrigation scheme, the farmers explained.
Recent reports by experienced irrigation experts suggested that a modified Pandiyaru-Moyyar scheme may not require any consent from the Kerala government and that could be implemented for a project cost as low as Rs 90 crore," they added.
They urged the ministry to put pressure on the Tamil Nadu government in this regard to at least implement this to help farmers reduce dependency on ground water.
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