Mettur dam can’t be opened now for Delta irrigation, says WRD official

TIRUCHY: The Mettur dam cannot be opened for Delta irrigation at this point of time since the storage in the reservoir is too poor, said chief engineer (Water Resources Department) K Asokan here on Monday.

After inspecting the storage at Grand anicut in Thanjavur and Upper Anicut in Tiruchy, the Chief Engineer K Asokan said, the desilt works are underway in the Delta region ahead of monsoon and the officials are advised to complete the entire desilt works on time. He also said that the water storage level at Grand Anicut and Upper Anicut have been inspected.

While the farmers from Thanjavur and Tiruchy visited the official in their respective places and put forth the demand to release water from Mettur for Delta irrigation, the Chief Engineer said that the water storage in Mettur is too low and there is no possibility of releasing water for Delta in this scenario.

Earlier, the farmers from Thanjavur staged a protest demanding the state government to initiate steps to get the due water from Karnataka. NV Kannan, secretary, Tamil Nadu Farmers Association who led the protest said that the Karnataka government failed to share 90 TMC water last year and current years due of 10 TMC water so far.

Kannan appealed to the Centre to initiate steps to get the due water from Karnataka and help the Delta farmers.

He warned that the farmers associations have planned for a mega protest across the state until Karnataka releases the due share of water to Tamil Nadu.