TN delta farmers to undertake protest march for Cauvery water as inflow in Mettur wanes

Chennai, Aug 29 (IANS) After the water inflow into Mettur Stanley reservoir dwindled, farmers in the delta region of Tamil Nadu are planning protest marches to get Cauvery water from Karnataka every month, as per the directive of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) and Supreme Court.

Umesh Raj, a farmer leader of Nagapattinam while speaking to IANS said that the farmers of the delta districts of Tamil Nadu will be resorting to strong protest marches for getting Cauvery waters.

It may be recalled that Karnataka released Cauvery water only when Kabini and Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) reservoirs reached their full capacity after the monsoon intensified.

With the release of water from Kabini and Krishna Raja Sagar reservoirs in Karnataka, Mettur dam touched its maximum capacity of 120 tmcft and water was released from the reservoir. However, as on Thursday, the storage in Mettur reservoir is only 88 tmcft.

However, after the rains in the catchment areas of Kabini and KRS reservoirs, the flow into the Mettur dam also came down drastically.

While the inflow of water into Mettur reservoir was 17,162 cusecs on August 18, after ten days on August 28, it came down to 4,551 cusecs.

M. R. Palanivel, a paddy farmer from Thanjavur -- the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu -- while speaking to IANS said: “There is a target of around 10.30 lakh acres for the seasonal cultivation of paddy in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Myladuthurai districts.”

He added that many farmers were conducting protests and that they are planning it on a massive scale.

He said that Tamil Nadu has to get a quota of 36.14 tmcft for the month of September and added that the present level of water in Mettur was not enough for paddy farming.

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