Chennai: The DMK president M K Stalin on Thursday warned that the ONGC's move to get Central approval for another 104 hydrocarbon wells exploration projects in Tamil Nadu will be a "huge disaster" to the State.
Strongly condemning the move, Mr. Stalin said in a statement here that of the proposed hydrocarbon projects, 15 wells were being planned to be drilled in Nagapattinam, 59 wells in Tiruvarur district, 17 in Thanjavur district, three in Ariyalur district, seven in Cuddalore and three in Ramanathapuram district, many of which were in the Cauvery delta districts, the state's main paddy-growing belt.
Expressing deep concern and shock at this development, the DMK leader said delta famers were apprehensive whether the Central government has, through these schemes, decided to completely shut down agriculture activities in all these districts.
In the Cauvery basin, he said already ONGC and Vedanta group have already got Centre's approvals for exploring hydrocarbons at 341 locations involving a capital outlay of Rs.18,650 crore. This will spell doom to agriculture, the livelihood of thousands of farmers and the economic stability of Tamil Nadu, he said.
Coming down on "continuous approvals" being given for hydrocarbon projects, Mr. Stalin pointed out that already people had joined the affected farmers to launch prolonged agitations against ONGC and Vedanta in places like Neduvasal, Kathiramangalam, besides in Nagapttinam and Tiruvarur. Recently, 596-km long human chain protest was organised along the coastline from Marakanam in Villupuram district to Rameswaram, by opposition parties, he drew attention to.
However, neither the Centre nor the State government has so far invited the protesters' representatives for talks on the issue, Mr Stalin regretted. On the one hand the Petroleum minister had said they will not implement hydrocarbon projects that was against the wishes of the people, but on the other the Centre continued to grant approval for such projects. Chief Minister, Mr Edappadi K Palaniswami was keeping mum over these developments and also 'crushing' the voice of the farmers on the issue, which were highly condemnable, he said.
Likening the activities of the Cauvery Water Management Authority to a mere post office, to which representations were made, Mr Stalin said the AIADMK government's claims of a "powerful authority" having been created to ensure release of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu have been belied. The ruling AIADMK was neither able to pressure Karnataka nor the Centre on this issue, he said.
The CWMA has become a 'toothless body', the DMK leader alleged and demanded the appointment of a permanent chairperson for the Authority. He urged the Centre to direct Karnataka to release of 40.43 tmcft of Cauvery waters for June and July.
PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss alleged that the move to drill 104 more wells has frightened farmers and people. "The Central government must not accord environmental clearance to drill wells," he said and wanted the State government to halt the move by the top public sector oil producer.
Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary TTV Dhinakaran appealed to people to adopt resolutions against projects, including hydrocarbon, in the gram sabha meetings to be held on June 28 across Tamil Nadu. Initiatives including extraction of hydrocarbon, methane shale gas were against the people, agriculture and environment, he alleged.
