Joint Action Committee to move Supreme Court on check dams

“After our protests and representations last month, state government moved the apex court, but the matter was not rightly presented. So, the check dam issue was added to the ongoing case pertaining to Cauvery River Tribunal,” Ku Ramakrishnan general secretary of Thanthai Periyar Dravida Kazhagam and co-ordinator of the JAC, comprising more than 20 political parties and non-political organisations said. 

“Construction of the first check dam at Thekkuvattai in Kerala is almost 80 per cent over. So we decided to move the apex court separately,” explained Ramakrishnan after a JAC meeting here on Sunday. DMK Deputy General Secretary Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan, senior representatives from DMK, VCK, SDPI and various farmers’ bodies took part in the meeting. 

Ramakrishnan said that the structure at Thekkuvattai that is six feet tall and 300 feet long across the entire breadth of the river has already stopped the flow of water for a distance of about 1.5 km. “We cannot take it lightly as Andhra Pradesh initially built similar small check dams across Palar River. Later, they converted it into a massive 25-feet-long structure that has completely stopped the flow of water into our state,” he added. At this juncture, he pointed out that Kerala has also initiated construction of a second check dam across the river at Manjakandy, about 5 km upstream of Thekkuvattai. 

The JAC also decided to organise a massive road blockage at KG Chavadi on the Palakkad Road on March 12. The protest would stop vehicles entering or leaving Kerala on that day. “We have planned to intensify protests if the neighbouring state fails to stop construction of the check dams,” Ramakrishnan said. It is worth mentioning that in an earlier meeting they also threatened to stop supply of essential commodities to Kerala over the issue.

The TPDK leader said that the JAC has no plans to make a representation on this issue to the new Chief Minister. “He was the Public Works Department Minister when we took up the issue with the government last month. This issue is not new to him,” Ramakrishnan added.

While various organisations and political parties are busy staging mass protests and demonstrations to get the attention of the state and Union governments to revive waterbodies in and around Coimbatore, a group of youth who got organised through the social media has started cleaning tanks and ponds in and around the city on their own. 

Earlier this month, R Manikandan of Kurichi in the city, who is actively involved in protecting Kurichi Tank from encroachments and pollution, shared a message on the social media asking youth to join hands to restore water bodies in and around the city during the dry season. When the state and media were engrossed in the political tussle going on in the ruling party, the conscious youth held a preliminary meeting at the Perur Big Tank on February 12 under the banner of ‘Kovai Kulangal Paathukaapu Amaipu’.

“We were a small group of 70 enthusiastic employed youth and students who decided to start work the same day by removing plastic wastes from the tank. Some of them volunteered to hire earthmovers to clear thorny shrubs such as Seemai Karuvelam and Neyveli Kattamanakku from the lake. The trees and shrubs have encroached 90 per cent of the big lake,” he told DTNext. 

Stating that around seven to eight earthmovers are at work in the tank every day, he claimed that they have cleared more than 200 tonnes of wastes from the Perur Big Tank, in just eight days (till February 19). 

Youth and college students also take turns to visit the tank to assist the cleaning works in person. On Sunday around 150 of them removed plastic carry bags and other non-degradable wastes from an inlet to the tank. 

Stating that 70 per cent of the cleaning works have been completed, Manikandan expressed confidence that the rest will be cleared before this weekend. On completion of cleaning the tank the group plans to clean other tanks and ponds in the city before the rains to improve the ground water table.