CHENNAI: CPM state secretary P Shanmugam on Saturday questioned the actions of the TVK government, supported from the outside by the Left party, on two fronts: opposing the move to release water from Mettur only for 45 days and senior minister KA Sengottaiyan's remark that there is no escape from acquiring agricultural lands for industrial projects—responding to demands to scrap the Hosur airport project.
On the Mettur release, the CPM warned that such a precedent will help Karnataka stop, once and for all, the monthly release of Tamil Nadu's share of the Cauvery, citing such a practice, and added that industrial projects should be brought in arid lands, avoiding fertile agricultural fields to save food production.
He also warned that a mere 45-day release would not be enough for samba cultivation and warned that Karnataka could use such an approach in future to deny Tamil Nadu its monthly share and release only surplus water.
The Mettur dam is scheduled to be opened for irrigation on September 1. Shanmugam said the Water Resources Minister N Anand's announcement that water would be released for 45 days had caused confusion among Delta farmers. "Forty-five days is not enough to raise any crop. Even short-duration paddy needs water for about 120 days, while samba requires water for around 150 days," he said, speaking during the CPM’s statewide people-contact campaign, held from August 26 to 31 at Kallukuttai in Velachery.
Shanmugam said Karnataka had not been releasing Tamil Nadu’s monthly entitlement under the Supreme Court’s 2018 Cauvery verdict and had instead been releasing surplus water when its reservoirs overflowed. "If this becomes the approach, Karnataka too may follow it in future and refuse to release Tamil Nadu’s rightful monthly share, saying it will release only surplus water," he said.
He urged the state govt to take steps to secure Tamil Nadu’s monthly entitlement through the Supreme Court and by pressing the Centre. The State should ensure that sufficient water is available for samba cultivation, he said.
Shanmugam said the failure to ensure adequate water had already hit kuruvai cultivation. In Nagapattinam, cultivation had been taken up on only around 200 acres, while in Thiruvarur, where 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh acres were normally cultivated, the crop had been raised on only around 20,000 acres, he claimed.
Responding to the Revenue Minister KA Sengottaiyan’s statement that agricultural land would have to be acquired for development projects, he said the State had lakhs of acres of wasteland and other land unsuitable for cultivation and should identify such land instead.
He said the CPM had opposed the Parandur airport proposal because it involved water bodies and more than 3,000 acres of multi-crop agricultural land. The govt should identify suitable non-agricultural land for the second airport, he said.
In Kallukuttai in Velachery, Shanmugam demanded house-site pattas for residents who have lived there for more than 40 years. He said the locality lacked roads, drinking water and drainage, leaving residents badly affected during the monsoon. He said the Madras High Court had already directed the Revenue Department to consider issuing pattas to Kallukuttai residents and urged the government to implement the direction.