The State government should increase the financial aid announced for farmers cultivating short-term kuruvai crop due to the delay in the release of water from the Mettur dam, Tamil Maanila Congress President G.K. Vasan said on Saturday.
“The aid of Rs.315 per acre announced by the Tamil Nadu government for kuruvai cultivation is not sufficient. The government should discuss with farmers’ associations and raise the financial assistance,” he said.
Mr. Vasan accused the Centre of being a mute spectator to Karnataka’s refusal to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. “If farmers are unable to harvest the kuruvai crop, it will lead to a loss of about Rs.650 crore and the livelihood of farmers cultivating the crop on nearly 3 lakh hectares will be affected,” he said.
This week, the State had announced a financial aid of Rs. 40.97 crore, among other measures, for farmers in the Cauvery belt.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had said water would not be released from the Mettur dam on the scheduled date of June 12 owing to low storage levels. He called on the State and Central governments to take steps to help farmers who have taken loans from banks and have been unable to pay interest as kuruvai cultivation has been affected in the past three years.
“To ensure that Cauvery water is released at least for the samba cultivation period, the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre should take steps to ensure that the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Monitoring Committee are formed at the earliest.”
“If farmers are unable to harvest kuruvai crop, it will lead to a loss of about Rs.650 crore”
