BJP threatens massive stir to press speedy completion of Athikadavu project

BJP cadres, led by party president K Annamalai, will picket Athikadavu Avinasi project office at Avinasi and take out a vehicle rally to the secretariat, Chennai, to press the government to complete the project without delay, said BJP farmers wing state president GK Nagaraj. 

In a release, he said that following many pleas of ryots for the past 60 years to carry out the project to improve ground water level in the droght prone areas of Erode,  Coimbatore and Tirupur districts, former CM Edapadi K Palaniswamy laid foundation for Rs 1,756.88 crore projects on Feb 28, 2019. Under the project, 1.5 tmc water of Bhavani river will be pumped by using motors from Kalingarayan Dam to 1045 small and big ponds in 3 districts to irrigate 24,468 acres. 

Even during the Corona period, the EPS rule brought workers in planes from Orissa, Bihar and other areas and carried out the projects without any hindrance. Now, pipes were laid for 1045 km stretch to pump water to ponds and the ryots didn't seek any compensation for using their land for the project.

 It was targeted to commence the project in last year's Pongal itself as 96.5 percent of work was completed. But, after the DMK came to power, the work was going on at snail's pace deliberately.  

The project would be fully completed, if pipelines were laid for 2.2 km stretch out of the 103 km stretch pipelines from Kalingarayanpalayam to Avinasi. Of 2.2 km stretch, 750 metre is near 1st pump house of Kalingarayan dam, 250 metre is between 2nd and 3rd pump house and 1.2 km at Mullampatti. At Mullampatti, government land existed. 

But, some ryots were instigated to seek compensation. But, the government didn't settle the issue. So, the project was not yet completed. Hence, over 30 tmc Bhavani river water wasted into the sea last year and 53 tmc last one week.

 If the project was completed in time, the water could be conserved in 1045 ponds. So, to press speedy completion of the project and inclusion of 800 ponds which were left out of the project the stir was planned, he added.