TIRUCHY: Since the procured kuruvai paddy is delayed for hulling and is damaged due to failure in timely movement, the State government should not use them for public distribution nor force the rice mills to hull them along with Samba and Kar paddy, appealed PR Pandian, president of the Coordination Committee of All Farmers Association, here on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters after visiting the dry field due to unavailability of water at Azhiyur in Nagapattinam, the farmer leader Pandian said, kuruvai was cultivated in an area of 6.31 lakh acres across the Delta last year, and it had shrunken to just 2 acres during the current year due to paucity of water.
“The failure of water release from Mettur had not only parched 12 lakh acres of land across Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai but also resulted in acute drinking water shortage in more than 1000 villages across the region. And the government should sort out the issue on a war footing,” Pandian appealed.
He appealed to the State government to insist that the Centre adhere to the order of the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee that recommended Karnataka to release 3,500 cusecs of water for 15 days. "This would solve the demand for water to some extent," he said.
Meanwhile, Pandian pointed out that the delay in the movement of procured kuruvai paddy for hulling had further damaged it, and so he appealed to the State government not to use the kuruvai paddy for public distribution, as the quality of rice would be below the average, he cautioned.
He also appealed to the government not to force the rice mills to hull the procured kuruvai paddy along with the samba and kar (practised in districts like Tirunelveli, Salem, Coimbatore and Erode), he said.
Pandian said that despite the Congress and the BJP opposing each other in Karnataka, both parties stand united in the Mekedatu dam construction issue.