Parambikulam - Aliyar Irrigation Scheme Project Committee farmers on Monday petitioned the Water Resource Organisation (WRO) of the Public Works Department against the release of 119 mcft of water to Uppar and urged the officials to ensure that farmers having 96,000 acre under the third zone ayacut get their due share of 9,500 mcft.
A delegation led by committee president K. Paramasivam met the Chief Engineer and presented a memorandum seeking action against officials for not going on appeal against the High Court order that called for the release of water to Uppar and for not taking efforts to explain the ground reality to the court.
Mr. Paramasivam told The Hindu that water was due for the third zone ayacut with 96,000 acres. The first wetting was given on January 5 and the second wetting was due. Meanwhile, citing a High Court order, the officials had released 119 mcft to Uppar. The rules were very clear that water to Uppar could be released only when the storage in the Tirumurthy Reservoir surplussed or when the storage was sufficient to meet the requirement. In addition, water could be released to Uppar only before or after water release for the respective PAP ayacut, because Uppar was in no way connected to PAP scheme.
The water released to Uppar now was in violation of the rules, he said. With the failure of the North East monsoon, water yield was not to the expected levels and the PAP scheme had to honour its commitment to Thirumurty Dam irrigation command farmers, Aliyar, Palar old and new ayacuts and to Kerala, besides meeting the due share of drinking water requirement. At such a juncture, the release of water to Uppar dam was not justified, he contended.
With the officials stating that water was released to implement the court order, the farmers dispersed after an assurance from the officials that the third zone ayacut farmers would get their due share of 9,500 mcft of water.