The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Nagapattinam News : `Release Mettur dam water'

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Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Nagapattinam

`Release Mettur dam water'

By Our Staff Reporter

NAGAPATTINAM, JULY 23 . Farmers of Nagapattinam district have urged the Government to release water for irrigation from the Mettur reservoir for raising the samba crop when it reaches the level of 90 feet.

Participating in the farmers meeting convened by the Collector, M. Veera Shanmugha Moni, here yesterday, K. G. Krishnamoorthy, vice-president of the composite Thanjavur District Farmers Association, said that the farmers could raise the short-term kuruvai paddy on about 16,000 hectares (against the normal area of 32,000 hectares) in Mayiladuturai, Sirkazhi, Kuthalam and Sembanarkoil areas this year only with the help of pump sets.

It would be too late now to raise kuruvai crop through surface water.

Mr. Krishnamoorthy said that the farmers were ready to grow sweet sorghum, sugar beet (beetroot) and jetropha as suggested by the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, provided sufficient seeds and the technology were made available to the farmers besides the link arrangement for marketing the produce.

He said that farmers raising the paddy crop with the help of pumpsets in the delta were put to great hardship because of the frequent power failure coupled with voltage fluctuation and urged the Government to take immediate steps to erect more transformers in the delta to help the farmers.

Mr.Krishnamoorthy said that all the co-operative loans should be clubbed together and the interest reduced to six per cent for the principal.

The entire amount should be made repayable in annual instalments. He said that although the district-level technical committee of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts had recommended to the State-level committee to provide finance for various crops at 75 per cent of the cost of cultivation, the SLTC was yet to take a decision.

The Collector, who presided, said that steps were taken to complete the repair and construction of several bridges across many rivers in the district before the release of Mettur water.

He said that it had been decided to entrust the work of desilting the irrigation channels and tanks to respective village farmers' associations instead of giving the work to the contractors.

He said that the Agriculture Department had adequate paddy seeds to meet the requirement of farmers.

Arupathi Kalyanam, general secretary of Federation of Farmers Associations in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapttinam districts, V. Thambusamy, former MLA (CPM), V. Dhanapalan, Cauvery Vivasayigal Padugappu Sangam secretary, officials from agriculture, irrigation and revenue departments attended the meeting.

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