The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Poor maintenance of Alangiyam canal is a source of worry for ayacut farmers

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Tamil Nadu

Poor maintenance of Alangiyam canal is a source of worry for ayacut farmers

Karthik Madhavan

The canal, which runs for about 11 km, usually carries water for four months, from mid-July or August

PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN

Disagreement: Farmers of the Alangiyam ayacut near Dharapuram dispute claims made by the Amaravathy Basin wing of the Public Works Department that it undertook repair and maintenance in the 11-km-long canal. —

DHARAPURAM: Farmers getting water from Alangiyam canal and the Public Works Department’s Amaravathy basin officials are quite literally on either side of the irrigation canel, over the maintenance of which they are divided.

The canal, one of the 25 in the Amaravarthy River’s old ayacut, irrigates 1,050 acres in Alangiyam, which borders Dindigul district.

It is one of the four canals in the old ayacut in the district, the others being Thalavaipattinam, Dharapuram and Kolinjivadi.

The canal, which runs for about 11 km, usually carries water from mid-July or August.

The PWD releases the water, which is at present for about four months.

The ayacut farmers say with the water they, until a few years ago, carried out agriculture activity for two sowing seasons.

However, in the past few years, they cultivate only one season.

Given the condition of the canal, the farmers fear that in the future they may not be able to cultivate even for a season.

“For a good length of the 11 km, plants have come up on the canal bed, affecting water flow. The plants not only draw water for their living, but also prevent flow to tail-end areas,” says an ayacut farmer, K. Palanisamy.

Besides the trouble on the bed, there are quite a few on the bank as well.

Many a shutter is damaged and at the zero point, where the canal branches off from the river, the concrete structure is damaged.

Secretary of the ayacut farmers P. Balakrishnan says the river, when in full flow, takes away boulders supporting the concrete structure.

And pointing to a sluice a few yards away from the zero point, the farmer says the PWD has not repaired such sluice gates, which are completely damaged.

The farmers approached the Amaravarthy basin officials, who maintained that they have carried out repair works.

The farmers, who did not agree with the officials’ contention, filed a petition under the Right to Information Act.

In the reply, the officials have stated that in 2006-07 they spent Rs.1.49 lakh towards special repair of flood-damaged areas, spent Rs.2.25 lakh in 2004-05, again for special repairs, another Rs.3.7 lakh for clearing the jungle, silting the bed, etc., and Rs.31,600 in 2000-01.

Pointing to the reply, farmer Mr. Balakrishnan says the PWD has carried out the work on paper and not on the ground.

His fellow farmers say they will be happy if the officials show them where they have carried out the work.

A senior official concerned with the canal’s maintenance says what they spent in 2006-07 and 2004-05 was special repairs following floods and that regular maintenance work in the recent past was carried out only on a minor scale.

The officer says the Department could not carry out full scale maintenance work because of the Cauvery dispute with Karnataka the river coming under the purview of the Cauvery Tribunal.

He promises that with the Tribunal giving its award, the Department has sent a proposal to the State Government for a complete overhaul of the canal to be carried out under the National Agriculture Development Programme.

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