Consultative Meeting of Farmers Societies:
A consultative meeting was held by the Coordinating Committee of all Tamil Nadu Farmers’ Associations regarding Tamil Nadu river water rights at the Tamil Nadu Hotel in Gandhipuram area of Coimbatore. Leaders of various agricultural associations and farmers participated in this meeting.
In this event, it was discussed about blocking the dams being built in other states between the rivers coming to Tamil Nadu and about leading the protests.
Interview with PR Pandian:
The chairman of this committee, PR Pandian, who met the media at the event, said that the water resources including Cauvery, Balaru, Siruvani, Amaravati, Mullaip Periyar are being drained one by one in Tamil Nadu and he said that the Tamil Nadu government is reluctant to tap this.
Mentioning that the state of Kerala has built a dam in the middle of the Siruvani river within two years, he said that in 2015, the state of Karnataka had given permission for the construction of a dam to the state of Kerala and the central government withdrew that permission after the farmers staged a protest in those days.
In 2 years of DMK government taking over:
In such a situation, he said that in the two years since the DMK government took over, the state of Kerala has blocked the flow of water to Siruvani by building dams there. He also said that the Kerala government has illegally built a dam on the river Spider.
He also said that no government can build dams at its own will, no project can be implemented without asking the opinions of irrigated farmers and no project can be implemented without consulting the Cauvery management plan.
The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu did not open his mouth:
PR Pandian criticized the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for not opening his mouth saying that the Cauvery Management Authority Chairman said that the Cauvery Management Authority had passed resolutions illegally in February with the approval of the Tamil Nadu government to build a dam at Meghadatu.
He also said that the Kerala government has submitted an application to the central government to build a dam in Mullai Periyar and that the central government has appointed a special committee for this purpose in May and that a committee headed by Sarangapani has been formed to carry it out is shocking.
He said that all the water sources are going away and criticized Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Mukastal for refusing to open his mouth. He also said that it seems that the DMK government is working hand in hand with the corporates to destroy the agricultural lands and lay the tar for the corporates. He informed that every irrigated farmers and agricultural association leaders have tried to form a protest group and restore rights by integrating like-minded organizations with social activists and said that they will form the “Kongu Zone Water Resource Rights Recovery Committee” today.
He said that all farmers union leaders and farmers in Tamil Nadu have decided to join together and block the construction of a dam in Siruvani on June 13 against the government of Kerala and against the construction of a dam in the middle of the river Spider. Prior to that, on 28th, he said that he is going to blockade the Madurai Income Tax office to condemn the construction of a new dam in Mullai Periyar.
He also accused the DMK government of not making any effort to implement the various judgments given by the court. He criticized that when Edappadi Palaniswami was the Chief Minister, a committee was formed for these issues, but the activities of the committee have been suspended since the DMK government took over. So he requested that farmers and social activists should be included in the committee. He also said that it has been decided to carry out strong protests in this regard.
