Notice to government over desilting of major dams

Admitting the petition, the High Court Bench had issued notice to the state government seeking its reply on the issue. 

K K Ramesh, in his petition, claimed that there were 11 major dams in the state, including Mettur, Pechiparai, Kallanai, Papanasam, Perunchani and so on, and the dams had not been desilted in the recent past. As a result, the storage capacity in these facilities had come down drastically, he claimed. 

The dams were main sources for drinking water and irrigation purposes in their respective regions. As the storage level in the dams had decreased, areas fed by them were facing severe shortage of water for drinking as well as irrigation. Though he had submitted several petitions with officials in the past no action had been taken, Ramesh claimed in his petition. 

He had filed a case in 2014 to desilt the dam and even though court had directed the officials to desilt the dam they did not carry out any work. Subsequently, he had filed a contempt case and during the hearings officials informed that the desilting works were going on but no such work was undertaken, the petitioner alleged. 

Hence, the court should take action on the officials who had given false information and also should direct the officials to desilt the dams. The petition has been adjourned to June 13.