Thoppayar Watershed Area Farmers Welfare Association has accused the PWD of violating the turn system mode of water distribution and depriving tail-end farmers of water.
The Thoppayar Dam was opened for irrigation on March 3. Petitioning Collector C. Dinesh Kumar here, farmers have alleged that the PWD had continuously supplied water from March 3 to March 20 through the Left Main Canal, without following the turn system of apportioning waters for different channels.
According to the tail-end farmers of back channels 3, 4 and 5, Kaadayampatty and Vellar villages received water for 20 days, while the tail-end farmers did not receive water. In its wake, farmers alleged that the PWD enlisted the help of the farmers to block the broken shutter gates claiming that the water would be released if the broken shutters were fixed.
Further, the farmers in their petition had alleged that after five days of manual labour by farmers between March 15 and 20, there still was no sign of water. The petition also alleged that the PWD claimed there weren’t enough funds to repair the broken shutter gates, and that the branch channels 3, 4 and 5 did not exist in the books of the PWD.
Farmers approached the Collector seeking intervention. According to the association, over 1,000 farmers in the watershed area have already prepared seeds and are raising nurseries in anticipation of the waters.
Published - March 24, 2025 08:26 pm IST
