Farmers in Thanjavur Revenue Division have urged the State government to extend the release of water from the Mettur dam by a fortnight from the scheduled date of closing of the dam this year.
Participating in the Thanjavur revenue divisional-level agriculture grievance meeting held here on Friday, the farmers suggested that the shutters of the Stanley Reservoir at Mettur could be closed by February 15 instead of January 28 in view of the late Thaladi cultivation taken up by a section of farmers in the Delta.
Claiming that the lakes and other waterbodies which served as a source for surface irrigation in Thanjavur district remain either half-empty or barren, they called upon the public works department officials to make sure that these waterbodies be filled up as early as possible.
Another issue raised by them at the meeting was demanding higher charges for the hiring of private combined harvester machines. Though the per-hour hire charges for the belt-type vehicles were fixed at ₹ 2,350 at the tripartite meeting held at the Thanjavur Collectorate, the farmers were forced to shell out ₹ 2, 800 per hour by the ‘middlemen’ controlling the private harvester machine service.
Similarly, for the tyre-type vehicles ₹ 2,000 per hour was being collected from the farmers as against the agreed hire charges of ₹ 1,750 per hour, they added.
Earlier, they staged a walkout from the meeting hall condemning the ‘official apathy’ shown towards the Thirumandankudi private sugar…
