Blocking of channel by windmill firm may cause floods: Public

Residents of Ottapidaram and nearby villages on Wednesday told DT Next that a private party from Gujarat which had set up a windmill near Ottapidaram had blocked Periyakulam, a water channel and a key source for irrigation to nearby villages. 

One of the residents of the Kappikulam village, Babu, said that on November 23, 2015, there was unprecedented flooding in Thoothukudi, though the town received only moderate rainfall. On the contrary, Kayathar and Ottapidaram received more than 100 mm of rain and because of it there was flood in Thoothukudi. Actually, the water should have flowed through the water bodies in Ottapidaram Taluk, but as the two windmill companies from Kerala blocked all the waterways in Ottapidaram it resulted in massive flooding in Thoothukudi town. 

This year too, a private company from Gujarat has blocked the water channel to lay a road for its windmill. There was heavy downpour on Tuesday night in Thoothukudi and if the rains continue all villages near Ottapidaram would be flooded. It would also affect farmers as rain water would not flow into any of the tanks or lakes in the vicinity, said Babu. 

Ironically, revenue officials had issued an order to the police officers to foil all protests against the windmill company. The officials, in the order, had stated that the company had deposited Rs 2 crore as corpus fund in the account of Block Development Officer (BDO), Ottapidaram, residents alleged.