TIRUCHY: Alleging that improper desilt works resulted in water stagnation on the paddy fields, farmers from Mayiladuthurai staged a protest with black flags on Tuesday.

Samba and thalady have been cultivated in more than 70,000 acres in Mayiladuthurai. However, the continuous heavy rains for past three days submerged 30,000 acres and the farmers’ effort to drain the rain water out of the fields failed in many places owning to improper desilt works. The shoddy work prevented free draining of water from the paddy fields, they alleged.

On Tuesday, when farmers from Karuvalakarai village near Sembanarkovil tried to drain out the stagnated water from the field, they failed in their efforts. Subsequently, they staged a protest with black flags in their respective field and raised slogans against the officials who had not executed desilt works in canals properly.

The protesting farmers charged that they had approached the PWD officials to undertake desilt works in their locality, but they failed to pay attention to their requests.

They said they were attempting to drain out the water with the support of diesel motors and pumped out the water. They added that had the PWD properly desilted the water bodies, they would not have suffered to such an extent.