This story is from December 4, 2016

Paddy farmers in a fix due to failure of PAP agreement

Paddy farmers in a fix due to failure of PAP agreement
(Representative image)
Palakkad: The farmers of Chitturpuzha irrigation project area who had taken up the second crop paddy cultivation in 20,000 hectares in October have abandoned it as the state government had failed to get its due share of 7.25 TMC feet water from Tamil Nadu under the inter-state Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) Agreement.
Desheeya Karshaka Samajam general secretary Muthalamthode Mani said, “The farmers have abandoned the second crop of paddy in Chittur as no water was made available from PAP for it.”
“The failure of the northeast monsoon compounded the problem.
The farmers who had planted the seedling lost it for want of water. This is a big setback to paddy farmers who are already facing problems of low remuneration and high cost of production.
This will force the farmers to abandon paddy cultivation altogether, affecting the food security of the state as half of the total paddy produced in the state is from Palakkad district,” he said.
The executive committee meeting of the Desheeya Karshaka Samajam held here on Wednesday came down heavily against the state government for its “failure to get Kerala’s share of water from the inter-state PAP”, forcing the farmers to abandon the cultivation of second crop of paddy in Chitturpuzha irrigation project area.
The committee statement said that during September and October there was enough water in the Parambikulam group of reservoirs. But the water was diverted to Thirumurthy dam through contour canals by Tamil Nadu for irrigating Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Erode, Coimbatore and Tirupur districts, covering more than seven lakh hectares of land.

“When the major share of water was taken away from Parambikulam to Thirumurthy, the Joint Water Regulatory Board (JWRB) officials of Kerala did not prevent it thereby the state lost its due share of water from the PAP,” the statement said.
“Thus Tamil Nadu did not honour the PAP agreement of releasing 7.25 TMC feet water to Chitturpuzha irrigation project this season too to cultivate paddy in 20,000 hectares of land under the plea that the PAP group of reservoirs are not having enough water to give Kerala its due share,” it said.
The statement alleged that Tamil Nadu had taken away the water from Parambikulam to Thirumurthy with the tacit support of Kerala officials.
The Samajam demanded a comprehensive inquiry into the state losing its due share of water from PAP and the role of officials in allowing Tamil Nadu to divert major share of water from Parambikulam group of reservoirs that would have come to Kerala.
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