Wednesday, Oct 02, 2002
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Tamil Nadu
By A. V. Raghunathan
The team came by three helicopters, one owned by the Tamil Nadu Government, and the others hired from Deccan Aviation. The Chief Secretaries of three riparian States, Sukavaneshwar of Tamil Nadu, Raghuram of Kerala and Ravindranath of Karnataka, accompanied the team, along with Mohana Krishnan, Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Technical Cell, and the Pondicherry PWD Chief Engineer, Ramamurthy. When the Committee went to inspect Karnataka reservoirs on September 24, the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary did not accompany it. At Mettur, the team went to the Governor' View Point, for a panaromic view of the dam. Mr. Mohana Krishnan, with a map, gave an elaborate account of the dam, storage during various periods and other relevant details. The members also saw for themselves the storage and later visited the gauge point, a well-like structure equipped with a measuring scale, to know the exact level. Quite a number of such points have been put up, but the water level has receded far below these points. Later, some of the members perused the records for both water flow and discharge, and power generation at various points of time. By 4.40 p.m. the committee members — Suresh Chandra of the Central Water Commission; B.R.Sharma, Additional Director-General, ICAR (Water Resource Management); R.K.Sharma, Member-Secretary, Central Water Commission, and Antony Balan of the CRA — flew to Thanjavur.
`Distress has to be shared'
Before leaving for Thanjavur, Mr. Goswami told presspersons that "at a time of drought situation as of now, distress has to be shared by the riparian States.'' When the presspersons wanted to know about his impressions on the gravity of the situation in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Goswami said he would give an elaborate account of the Committee's findings in his report (to be submitted to the court as well as the CRA). When his attention was drawn to the situation in which Tamil Nadu was a beneficiary of both the southwest and northeast monsoons, Mr. Goswami said only the cropping pattern ought to be taken into account, and the primary concern was which of the riparian States had suffered bigger crop damage.
Visits Thanjavur
Our Thanjavur Staff Reporter reports: A 13-member Cauvery Monitoring Committee led by Mr.Goswami, secretary, Water Resources, Government of India arrived here this evening to assess the drought situation and hear farmers' views. The team consisting of Mr.Sukavaneshwar, Dr.Ravindra, Mr.Suresh Chandra, Mr.Mohana Krishnan, and other officials visited Reddipalayam, Vannarapettai and Alakudi villages and surveyed the dry paddy fields. Farmers told them that they lost kuruvai crop and that the hopes of raising samba crop remained bleak. The Committee later held discussions with representatives of Farmer Associations and MLAs. Mr.S.Ranganathan, secretary, Cauvery Delta Farmers' Welfare Association, said water was scarce not only for cultivation, but also for drinking. Paddy cultivation was difficult and fodder for cattle was in shortage. The situation would not have arisen if water had been released in September first week. Now the people were dependent on the northeast monsoon.
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