Inordinate delay in issuing a government order to provide compensation for land owners in Mullampatti, Nallagoundenpalayam and Kalingarayanpalayam has come as stumbling block for the Athikadavu–Avanashi ground water recharge scheme, said G.K. Nagaraj, president of Bharathiya Janata Party’s kisan morcha.
The scheme for which the then Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami laid the foundation on February 28, 2019 at an outlay of ₹1,756.88 crore was otherwise almost complete. It was a 60-year-long fight of the farmers in Erode, Tiruppur and Coimbatore Districts, he said.
The scheme was aimed at drawing water from Kalingarayan canal where river Bhavani enters Cauvery river and fill the 1,045 tanks, through pumping stations, in the three districts with 1.5 tmcft of water so as to recharge the ground water and enable irrigation in 24,468 acres, Mr. Nagaraj said in a statement.
Even during the pandemic, the AIADMK government went on to tide over manpower shortage by sourcing workers from Odisha and Bihar. But the DMK government was neglecting the scheme, he said.
With 96.5% of works completed, the scheme awaits a G.O. providing compensation for land owners in a mere 4 km stretch. Of the 1,058-km total length of pipelines to be laid, work was over in respect of 1,054 km. The scheme should have been completed in January 2021 and commissioned during Pongal.
If it had been completed as per schedule, the 30 tmc of water that went as surplus in Cauvery river would have been used for recharging the ground water resources in three districts, he said.
Mr. Nagaraj, therefore, urged Mr. Stalin to pay personal attention to the issue and arrange for releasing the G.O. to complete the works and commission the project ahead of the monsoon
