The Hindu : Front Page : Farmers clean up River Noyyal

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Monday, Jun 11, 2007
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Farmers clean up River Noyyal

Karthik Madhavan

NOYYAL: River Noyyal, which for long has been associated with not-so-pleasant news, legal battles and farmers' cry, now has something good to offer.

Farmers of the Noyyal River Ayacutdars' Protection Committee, fighting a legal battle in the Madras High Court against polluters, have cleaned the river's downstream.

Five hundred members of the committee, using the money obtained from a court direction, have removed encroachments, bushes and polluted sludge from the riverbed.

Of the 53-km stretch downstream, from Orathapalayam Dam to the confluence of the river with Cauvery, the committee has completed 50 km.

"We are about to complete the work, started on June 10, 2006, with the money the polluters paid as fine to the court," says V. K. Ganesan, president of the committee.

The member-farmers who come from villages that dot the riverbanks have involved themselves in the work.

They get together to supervise the work within their limits.

Mr. Ganesan says each farmer gets Rs. 150 as wages a day, apart from lunch.

The farmers take about a week to complete work in a km. The machines are hired for a rent of about Rs. 700 an hour, depending upon the work capacity.

Mr. Ganesan says the court has sanctioned Rs. 72.5 lakh for the work undertaken so far. They are yet to receive another Rs. 20.5 lakh.

Secretary of the committee A. P. Kandasamy says besides cleaning, the farmers with assistance from the Revenue and Public Works departments are also erecting stones to mark the river's boundary.

"The survey for boundary marking has been completed in Perundurai taluk, and in the weeks to come will cover Erode, Kangayam, Aravakurichi and Karur taluks," he says. It is part of the work the court-appointed expert monitoring committee has given them.

Head of the monitoring committee S. Sivaraman says they have been monitoring the progress, and have suggested some more works to be carried out.

After the survey for boundary demarcation is complete, the farmers will start the second round of cleaning to cover areas left out.

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