Cauvery water: Central team visits Nagai district

Nagapattinam: A four-member central team today visited several villages in this Cauvery delta district as part of its mission to study irrigation water requirement.

During the interaction, farmers told the team members led by Chief Engineer R K Gupta that the last short-term Kuruvai paddy season was a failure and the current long-term samba crop was totally dependant on the water flow in Cauvery. Accompanied by District officials, the team visited Thirupoondi, Pattamangalam, Ettukudi, Thirkkuvalai, Alangudi and other villages and inspected the condition of the paddy fields. They also interacted with the farmers. Showing the dry paddy fields, the farmers said the North-East Monsoon was yet to set in the state. "Even if we get normal rainfall in the coming days, water flow in Cauvery would be crucial as Samba crop would require water for a minimum of 100 days. Monsoon rainfall can meet water requirement fir only about 50 days. " The team which also included PK Sivarajan, Director, Monitoring, Central Water Commission, Veerendra Sharma, CWC Superintending Engineer, and Pradeep Thakur, Deputy Director, Irrigation and Planning would tomorrow tour the other parts of the tail-end area, including Sirkazhi and Mayiladuthurai. PTI