Thoothukudi : As many as 260 farmers including 130 women courted arrest while staging a road roko at Pudukottai on Palayamkottai Road here on Monday demanding the officials to ensure immediate supply of water from the Tamirabarani river to save standing crops from withering.
K. P. Perumal, district secretary, Tamil Nadu Farmers Association, said around 5,000 acres of paddy and banana fields were desperately in need of water now. The farmers had been demanding release of water over the last couple of weeks to save the standing paddy and banana crops, but no action had been taken so far to discharge water. Officials from Departments of Revenue and Public Works held talks with the farmers at a meeting convened by Thoothukudi Tahsildar S. Chandran here on Thursday.
However, the officials while ruling out the possibility of releasing thousand cusecs of water as demanded by the farmers, said only 450 cusecs of water could be discharged.
Irked over this, the farmers blocked vehicular traffic on Palayamkottai Road. While the authorities attempted to convince the agitated farmers that efforts would be taken to discharge the required amount of water in 10 days, the farmers urged them to discharge water within four days, The Hindu reported.
Besides, the farmers also appealed to the authorities to stop a giant pump from drawing water from the Srivaikuntam dam for industrial purpose during this April. Under the 20 MGD scheme, water from this dam was being pumped by two pumps for industries, the district secretary said. Later, the arrested farmers were released.