CRRC to besiege Collectorates over Mekedatu row

The decision was taken during the consultative meeting of the committee held in Thanjavur on Thursday. Conveying this to presspersons, P Maniyarasan, the convener of CRRC, pointed out the Karnataka government had allotted Rs 5,912 crore to build a new dam across the Cauvery with a capacity of 66.5 TMC and that the preliminary work on the dam has already begun. Claiming that the drought relief announced by the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy was inadequate to ameliorate the distress of the farmers, he charged that the Chief Minister had not given pressure to the central government to get the National Disaster Response Fund. 

The convener also said that the CM failed to point out in his report that the drought situation was man-made due to the Karnataka’s refusal to release Cauvery water due for Tamil Nadu as per the tribunal award. “Our protests will continue till the issues are resolved,” he added.

Apart from the Mekedatu dam issue and the setting up of CMB, other issues like disbursal of Rs 25,000 per acre for crop loss, a sum of Rs 25,000 per family of farm workers, demand to arrange fodder and water for cattle during summer, payment of Rs 15 lakh per family of the farmers who died due to crop failure, waiver of loans taken by farmers from commercial and cooperative banks, one year loan recovery holiday by private money lenders and announcement of the Cauvery delta as the protected agriculture zone by banning extraction of methane, shale gas, lignite and petroleum products would be highlighted during the agitations, Maniyarasan said.