District Collector V. Sampath directed immediate inspection of the Vasishtanadhi river bed at Abinavam village following complaints of encroachments.
Supreme Court and the Madras High Court have expressed serious concern regarding encroachments into water bodies, the Collector said while responding to the complaints made by farmers on encroachments in the river at the farmers grievances redress meeting here on Friday and directed the inspection of the river bed by a special team of officials on Saturday itself.
If encroachments were found on the atru puramboke and road puramboke, they should be removed immediately.
The Collector directed the Tangedco officials to issue notice to the private individuals and sever power connection given to them instantly.
It was ‘Abinavam’ S. Jayaraman, who raised the issue. He said that private individuals had constructed three buildings encroaching into 60 per cent of the river bed in Abinavam village. The vested interests had also encroached into the river bed from Ethapur to Abinavam, he alleged.
C. Vaiyapuri, president, United Farmers Association-Tamil Nadu, demanded severe action against the encroachers and immediate demolition of the buildings standing on the water bodies.
Balathandayuthapani of Thammampatti complained about encroachments in River Varattar; Annamalai of Sokkanathapuram on encroachments in Sokkanathapuram lake, P. R. Samikannu in Periyeri lake and demanded all the encroachments.
Aavin
Madeswaran of Sivathapuram raised the issue of continuous refusal of Aavin to procure the entire milk supplied by the farmer members of the cooperative societies.
It was Aavin which encouraged farmers to augment milk production. Now the same Aavin was refusing to collect the entire quantity of milk, causing much hardship to the farmers.
The Salem Aavin had not taken any step for increasing the storage capacity in the last 15 years.
K. Sundaram, State general secretary of the Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam, came to his rescue and urged the government to solve this issue. What would the farmers do with the milk refused by the Aavin? he asked.
Mr. Sundaram thanked the Chief Minister for waiving the loans of the micro and small farmers and urged the government to write off the loans procured by all the farmers.
Govindan of Thalaivasal demanded steps for the removal of Karuvelam trees from the water bodies. He said that an NGO came forward to remove the same, but could not launch the work due to lack of cooperation from the government departments.
N. Elango, Joint Director of Agriculture, said that lot of procedures connected to different departments were involved when an NGO was pressed into service in such a project.
