Tamil Nadu: Farmers want Delta region declared drought-hit

TIRUCHY: With no possibility of release from Mettur on June 12, farmers witnessing the withering of kuruvai crops have appealed to the State government to declare the Delta region as drought-hit. They have also urged the government to organise a meeting with them to decide the next course of action and to air out grievances like uninterrupted power supply to enable kuruvai cultivation via borewells, a common practice in previous governments.

Mettur reservoir is customarily opened on June 12 annually and shut on January 28. The release is subject to the storage level. Only when the level is above 100 feet, and 90 feet in rare instances, would the dam be opened. On Wednesday, the level in Mettur stood at 79.69 feet, and the storage was just 41.648 TMC.

In the last few years, with prompt release from Mettur, Delta farmers have achieved up to 6.31 lakh acres of kuruvai harvest. Farmers depending on river irrigation are now grief-stricken as kuruvai cultivation has become difficult this year.

In such a scenario, the farmers who were sceptical about the water release due to poor storage in the reservoir quit kuruvai, while those dependent on borewells commenced cultivation across the region. Officials claim kuruvai cultivation would reach at least 3.50 lakh acres this year, but the farmers claimed that the irrigation through the borewells was affected by the frequent power cuts. This resulted in the withering of kuruvai crops in several areas across the region.

"The unscheduled power cuts and failure in release of water from Mettur would result in at least 2 lakh acres less this year, and this would affect paddy production at least to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore. This would certainly affect the farmers and the farm labourers," said Swamimalai Sundara Vimalnathan, secretary, Tamil Nadu Cauvery Farmers Protection Association.

He appealed to the State to organise a tripartite meeting in the Delta region. "These meetings were conducted in the Delta region during the past governments, right from the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and the former Chief Minister MK Stalin, in which the officials put forth their advice about the cultivation of short-term grains during such scenarios. This is a regular practice in the neighbouring states like Andhra, Telangana and Karnataka," he said.

He also appealed that the government should declare the delta districts as a drought-hit region and get the Central government's aid to support farmers.

Meanwhile, farmers depending on borewells rue over frequent power outages and the fuel price hike. "We commenced the cultivation with the help of bore wells. We need an uninterrupted power supply for at least eight hours to irrigate, but there were unscheduled power cuts which resulted in the withering of kuruvai crops," said AKR Ravichandar, president, Cauvery Delta Farmers Association. He urged the government to resolve the situation else the entire kuruvai cultivation would be lost this year.

Mettur Stats on Wednesday

Current level - 79.69 feet

Full depth -120 feet

Current storage - 41.648 TMC

Full storage: 93.470 TMC

Current inflow: 528 cusecs

Current outflow: 1,002 cusecs