Farmers seek desilting of smaller irrigation channels to save standing crops

Carrying withered paddy, a group of farmers submitted a petition to Mayor G. Ramakrishnan on Tuesday seeking the urban civic body’s intervention to desilt the smaller irrigation channels getting water from Tirunelveli Channel to save the standing crops.

In the petition, the farmers said the smaller irrigation channels getting water from Tirunelveli Channel to 300 acres of land in Tirunelveli Town had been filled with debris and waste. Consequently, the flow of water to the fields has been completely choked. Even though several petitions had been submitted to the Corporation and the Public Works Department officials, no step has been taken so far to desilt the irrigation channels.

Consequently, the paddy raised on nearly 300 acres of land in Tirunelveli Town area are now wilting. Hence, the Corporation, in association with the PWD, should desilt the smaller irrigation channels immediately, the petitioners said.

Residents of Vasanthapuram in ward 43 submitted a petition complaining that the Corporation’s “indifferent and step-motherly attitude” had left their area without any basic infrastructure for the past 13 years. Even though the residents were paying all taxes payable to the Corporation, the repeated appeal for basic infrastructure including motorable roads, regular drinking water supply, overhead tank and underground drainage facility in Vasanthapuram remain unattended.

Hence, the Corporation should fulfil the genuine demands of the taxpayers, the petitioners said.

On behalf of Bishop Sargent Home-cum-Vocational Training Centre for Intellectually Challenged, its correspondent Samuel Koilpillai submitted a petition seeking proper supply of drinking water to the Home, now housing 50 inmates.