Food Minister R. Kamaraj has said that 88 works will be executed in Tiruvarur district at a total cost of ₹20.23 crore under the ‘kudimaramathu’ scheme this year.
Disclosing this to reporters at Anaikuppam village panchayat in Nannilam taluk on Thursday, the Food Minister said the regulator across Valapparu at Anaikuppam would be renovated at a cost of ₹50 lakh and the irrigation channel at nearby Pillur would be desilted for a distance of 13.50 kilometres at a cost of ₹12 lakh through the Water Users Associations (WUAs) formed for this purpose.
While the government would bear 90% of the expenditure, the WUAs would bear 10% of the project cost to revive or renovate the waterbodies and other structures required to ensure smooth distribution of water for irrigation.
During 2019-20, 95 works such as desilting of supply channels, repairing of sluices, strengthening of bunds and deepening of tanks were taken up at a cost of ₹16.04 crore in Tiruvarur district.
A total of 1,829 works were taken up under ‘kudimaramathu’ scheme 2019-20 in Tamil Nadu at a cost of ₹499 crore and the government had allocated a similar amount this year also for taking up 1,387 works, the Minister said.
Meanwhile, the Thamizhaga Cavuery Vivasayigal Sangam general secretary, P. R. Pandian claimed that only about 60% of the works taken up under ‘kudimaramathu’ scheme in the delta districts last year have been completed. When the remaining 40 % of work were suspended due to heavy precipitation, the respective district administrations announced that these works would be taken up after harvest, by February this year. Hence, he urged the State government to take up the suspended works along with ‘kudimaramathu’ projects identified for this year without fail.