Tamilnadu Chief Minister M.K Stalin opened the Mettur Dam to release water for the Cauvery Delta irrigation today enabling the Cauvery delta farmers to cultivate paddy during the Kuruvai (1st. crop) season.
It is for the 19 th. time the Mettur Dam is being opened exactly on the customary scheduled day of June 12.
On 11 occasions, the dam has been opened for before the customary day because of good storage position combined by good inflows and also as per the request of the farmers in the Cauvery delta districts.
Mettur Dam's water level today stood at 103.35 feet as against its full height of 120 feet.
The dam holds 69.33 TMC of water as against its full capacity of 93.5 TMC.
The water level stands above 100 feet consecutively for 333 days which according to PWD officials is due to good rainfall.
When the water release commences from the dam, electricity production will also commence at the two power houses and the 7 barrages which have undergone maintenance works and kept ready for operation.
Chief Minister announces the Year 2023 Kuruvai Package Scheme
Stalin announced the Rs.75.95 crore Kuruvai Package Scheme for the current scheme.
Under the scheme the farmers will get per acre 45 kgs of urea, 50 kgs of DAP and 25 kgs of Potash for 85 lakh acres. 1.24 lakh acres will be covered under 50 percent chemical fertiliser subsidy scheme.
Alternate crop of 15,188 acres, 6200 acres of pasunthalir seeds and 45 power feeders will also be covered under the package said the Chief Minister
Addressing media persons after opening Dam, Stalin said, that was opening the reservoir for the third consecutive year.
But timely opening alone doest not matter and as it has to be ensured that the released water should reach the tail end area, the state government had taken steps to desilt the canals in the Cauvery delta districts.
In the year 2021 the canals were repaired at a cost of Rs 52.91 crore. Also in order to utilise the water from the barrages Rs 61.09 crore was spent on repairing the barrages.
These efforts resulted in paddy crop cultivation of 4.9 lakh acres. In the year 2022 due to better water management the Mettur Dam had sufficient storage so that dam was opened for Cauvery delta irrigation on May 24th itself which was 19 days ahead of the customary schedule of June 12.
Rs 80 crore was spent on desilting the canals that year and was well appreciated by the farmers.
Rs 61.12 crore Kuruvai package scheme was with crop loan, seed , chemical and bio-fertilizers were supplied on subsidy at the right time.
This resulted in a 5.36 lakh acre coverage which was a record in 48 years yielding a production of 17.76 lakh tonnes.
This year the Mettur Dam is being opened on the customary schedule of June 12 because of better stock position of Mettur Dam.
This year the canals are being desilted at an outlay of Rs 90 crore an works are getting completed at a fast.
Farmers consultancy meetings have been held at the ministerial level and based on the farmers' feed back arrangements are being made for a better Kuruvai season.
1.06 lakh acres of paddy have been sown with ground water as source alone.