POLLACHI: As many as 2,000 farmers gheraoed the PAP (Parambikulam Aliyar Project) office in Pollachi on Tuesday demanding to release more water for agriculture this season. According to sources, around 3.77 lakh acres around Pollachi is being benefited by water from the Thirumoorthi dam let out for irrigation, the beneficiary areas being dived into four zones.
Presently second round water is being supplied to the fourth zone, which is to be stopped on Dec 21.
Meanwhile, a huge congregation of farmers besieged the PAP office on Tuesday demanding to release of additional water, claiming their crops are not yet fully grown and it would take few months for harvesting.
The farmers told DC that last year two rounds of water was released for the fourth zone despite having just 3 tmcft storage, while now the dams in PAP system have more than eight tmcft of water. Hence, they demanded release of additional water for the fourth zone now.
Already, farmers have suffered a lot financially for the past few years following a prolonged drought and the crops had been left unattended without sufficient water. Around 94,000 acres comes under fourth zone in Thirumoorthi dam irrigation system which gets just 3,800 mcft of water, whereas the 22,000 acres coming under Aliyaar dam gets 1,479 mcft of water, they said. Hence, more water for Thirumoorthy dam irrigation area has to released, at least on par with Aliyaar dam water release, added the farmers.
