While welcoming the administrative sanction given for the third phase of ‘kudimaramathu’ (maintenance of waterbodies) works in the State, farmers’ associations and political parties have demanded that monitoring committees be formed to supervise the works.
Sanction of ₹499 crore for the purpose during this year by the State Government was preceded by utilisation of ₹330 crore in 2018 and ₹100 crore by the Public Works Department in 2017, the year when the scheme was launched and implemented through regional offices in Tiruchi, Madurai, Coimbatore and Chennai.
According to the Secretary of Thanjai District Cauvery Farmers Protection Association, Sundara Vimalanathan, had the maintenance works, particularly in delta region and the areas where cultivation was being carried out, been executed in association with the Agricultural Engineering Department, the benefit would have been higher for cultivators, especially to those in the tail-end areas.
Contractors entrusted with the work by the PWD were desilting the canals to a width of just three metres at the centre of ‘A’ Channels which are supposed to be 20 to 30 metres broad with head sluices branching off from the rivers.
Desilting of main channels for such a narrow width would never ensure reach of water for irrigation from rivers to the tail-end areas, he said.
Further, there was no transparency in this mega project as the PWD had neither held consultation with the ryots before carrying out the work nor had put up bill boards displaying details about the project for public viewing.
“Allocation of works in clusters adds to the suspicion that the entire exercise reeks of corruption,” Mr. Sundara Vimalanathan said.
“At least in this phase, the Government should hold discussion with farmers before finalising the works. Besides, monitoring committees should be formed at least at the taluk-levels, if not at panchayat levels, comprising farmers, representatives of farmer associations, officials and others for effective implementation,” he emphasised.
Echoing similar views, the district secretary of Communist Party of India, Thanjavur, M.A. Bharathi said that though ₹ .9.82 crore was spent under this scheme in 2018 for taking up 59 `kudimaramathu’ (maintenance works) in four sub-basins – Cauvery, Vennar, Grand Anaicut and Pattukottai Agniyaru – , water did not reach areas such as Peravurani, Adhiramapattinam, Sethubhavachatram, Pattukottai, Madukkur, Thiruvonam and other blocks even when the Cauvery witnessed heavy flow.
Mr. Bharathi called upon the district administration to convene a meeting of officials by inviting farmers associations, farm labourers associations, and all political party representatives for formation of the monitoring committees.
Meanwhile, the president, Thamizhaga Anaithu Vivasayigal Sangangal Coordination Committee, P.R. Pandian, demanded that the maintenance works should be handed over to the ryots as the very title of the scheme ‘kudimaramathu’ implies. He was also in favour of formation of monitoring committees.
