The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : `Give up New Veeranam, deep borewell projects'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 06, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

`Give up New Veeranam, deep borewell projects'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEYVELI, JUNE 5. The Communist Party of India, farmers' organisations and elected representatives of local bodies staged a dharna at Vadalur, near here, today urging the Tamil Nadu Government to jettison both the New Veeranam and the deep borewell projects.

They were of the unanimous view that these projects were posing serious threat to the groundwater resources in the Panruti-Neyveli region. If it went ahead with the execution of the projects, the entire Cuddalore district would turn into a desert, causing irreparable damage to cultivation and livelihood of the farmers and farm labourers.

However, they made it clear that they were not against supplying water to Chenniites, but for that the government must find suitable alternative projects. At the most the New Veeranam and the deep borewell projects were ad hoc measures and these would not provide permanent solutions to water-starved Chennai, and hence a permanent solution ought to be found, they said.

The State CPI executive committee member and MLA, G. Palaniswamy, said the Assembly Estimate Committee had told that the New Veeranam project was not feasible.

The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, had informed the Assembly about the New Veeranam project in which the borewell component did not figure at all. The sinking of the giant borewells was a later addition taken up without giving proper thoughts to the rights and interests of the people in the region.

Experts had suggested that the Palar held out good prospects for storing water through check-dams along its riverbed, and he called upon the Government to give proper consideration to it. He held the view that in tackling the problem of one region, the Government should not create problems to others.

The Cuddalore district secretary of the CPI, T. Manivasagam, said there was an impending threat to groundwater sources, and once it got dried up, seawater incursion would happen.

The government did not seem to have any constructive plan to recharge the sources. He suggested that the Government could instead concentrate on tapping other sources such as the Bhavani at Pallipalayam or Hogenakkal. Mr. Manivasagam said setting up of the desalination plants for making seawater potable would be the right solution.

The president of the Sethiathope Anakattu Paasana Vivasayigal Sangham, M. Vijayakumar, said that on the one hand the government had declared the Kumaratchi and certain other areas in the district as black spots, prohibiting sinking of deep borewells, whereas, it itself was flouting its own rules.

The president of the Walajah Eri Paasana Vivasayigal Nala Sangham, S. Ramanujam, called for a united fight against the execution of these projects. The district secretary of the Vivasayigal Sangham, S.P. Govindasamy presided.

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`Give up New Veeranam, deep borewell projects'

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