Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday, June 9, 2023 inspected the ongoing desilting of irrigation channels in Thanjavur district.
The Chief Minister commenced his inspection tour at Vannarapettai hamlet in Thanjavur taluk, where he discussed the progress of desilting of the Muthalaimuthu Vari drain channel which originates at Muthalaimuthu lake in Chennaipatti hamlet and passes through Kuruvadipatti, Vallampudur, Vannarapettai, Ramanathapuram and Kalimedu villages before joining the Vennar river near Palliagraharam on the outskirts of Thanjavur Corporation.
Around 2,100 acres of agriculture fields, located along the 24.5-kilometre long drain channel that can hold a maximum of around 4,300 cusecs of water, benefit from this channel since barrages have been set up at five places.
Since sand dunes and wild growths have cropped at several places, it was decided to carry out desilting of this channel for 3.5 kilometres at a cost of ₹20 lakh this year. Desilting would help avoid inundation of paddy in Vannarapettai and Ramanathapuram during floods, officials told the Chief Minister.
Later, the Chief Minister inspected the desilting work executed on ‘C’ and ‘D’ irrigation channels in Vinnamangalam in Thiruvaiyaru taluk. While 12 kilometres of the ‘C’ and ‘D’ channels branching off from the ‘B’ irrigation channel in Vinnamangalam were being desilted at an estimated cost of ₹6 lakh, 920 metres of ‘the C1’ branch channel of the Vinnamangalam ‘B’ channel were desilted at an estimated cost of ₹34,000, sources said.
Memorandum submitted
Meanwhile, the Thanjavur District Committee, Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister in Budalur, drawing his attention toward the damaged condition of a regulator on the Uyyakondan Extension Channel near Valavanthankottai. Claiming that the flow of water for irrigation through the Uyyakondan Extension Channel had been affected due to this, the Committee’s district secretary, N.V. Kannan said that the needs of around 7,000 acres in 15 hamlets were affected.
