Irrigation tank for agriculture, don’t drain water from it: HC

Madurai: Observing that water stored in an irrigation tank has to be preserved for agriculturalists, the Madras high court on Tuesday granted interim injunction restraining the authorities from draining out water from an irrigation tank situated in Virudhunagar district, under the guise of desilting it.A division bench of justice S S Sundar and justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the interim order and sought a response from the Virudhunagar district administration officials while hearing a public interest litigation filed by R Palraj, a resident of Vilakkucheri village.The petitioner stated that agriculturalists are dependent on the Vilakkucheri Chinna Kanmoi in the village. For the past three years, the villagers have been requesting the authorities to carryout maintenance work by desilting the tank for efficient water storage. The maintenance should be made between January to May when there is no rainfall. However, the panchayat president attempted to commence the work by the end of July. When the people opposed it, the work was stopped.The president again took steps to commence the work from September. However, it is partially filled with water due to rainfall during June and July. The water is being drained out for maintenance work, he said.Though he had submitted a representation seeking to stop the work, no action was taken. So he filed the present petition seeking a direction to the authorities to stop the maintenance work and postpone the same to the summer season.
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