PAP Main Canal tail-end farmers call for equitable water distribution before start of irrigation in Second Zone
Farmers in the tail-end of the PAP Vellakovil Branch Canal are demanding equitable water distribution from the state government before the start of the second irrigation zone. They claim that upper-reach areas receive disproportionate amounts of water, causing significant hardship for downstream cultivators.
Why it matters
This highlights ongoing tensions regarding water resource management and the struggle of small-scale farmers to secure fair access to irrigation in the face of bureaucratic inaction.
Furnishing data of the Water Resources Department (WRD) on zone-wise distribution, the PAP Vellakovil Branch Canal (Kangayam-Vellakovil) Water Conservation Association has urged the State government to ensure equitable water distribution to the ayacut of Vellakovil Branch, before the commencement of Second Zone irrigation.
The farmers of Vellakovil Branch ayacut, who are dependent on the water for cultivation in 48,000 acre, have been facing enormous financial, physical and mental hardship for the past decade, in the absence of intended outcome despite repeated representations to the WRD, meetings with authorities, democratic protests and legal proceedings.
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