Anxiety prevails among delta farmers over prospects of the standing ‘kuruvai’ crop and the subsequent ‘samba’ cultivation in view of the depleting water storage at Stanley reservoir in Mettur.
Stating that the present storage would not be sufficient to see through the ‘samba’ season which used to start this month, they lamented that already one-third of ‘kuruvai’ paddy cultivated in the delta and neighbouring districts had been affected due to insufficient water for irrigation.
However, despite the grave situation, the disbursement of ‘kuruvai’ package this season is said to have mitigated the sufferings, farmers’ outfits say.
Meanwhile, Tamizhaga Cauvery Vivasayigal Sangam president P. R. Pandian told reporters here on Friday that though the officials claimed that the target for total ‘kuruvai’ cultivation acreage had exceeded this season, in reality, the crop raised in about 2.50 lakh acres had only got sufficient surface irrigation support. Nearly one lakh acres had not received the required support for the sustenance of the standing crop, he said.
‘Exert pressure’
Expressing concern over the storage level at Mettur, Mr. Pandian exhorted the State government to exert pressure on the Cauvery Water Management Authority to ensure that the upper riparian State complied with the Supreme Court directions with regard to releasing of water from the Karnataka dams during a water year.
As the dams in Karnataka have recorded good inflow and the State had built up water storage level sufficient enough to be shared as per the Supreme Court directions, the CWMA and the Tamil Nadu government should initiate steps for timely release of water from the Karnataka dams to build up the storage at the Stanley reservoir in Mettur to help the Delta farmers take up ‘samba’ cultivation with confidence, he added.