All seven functioning quarries ordered to be closed in Karur district
Sand quarries in the river Cauvery that are more than five years old have remained shut since Saturday following the Madras High Court directive. Through Friday night, vehicles awaiting their turn to load sand were hurriedly cleared and excavators at the quarries withdrawn on orders from PWD officials. Field officials visited the quarries on Saturday and erected road blocks and dug trenches across the entrance to prevent truck movement.
The Government which had planned measures to conserve water bodies and rivers was said to be actively considering the proposal.
A proposal submitted by Siruthuli for restoration of Noyyal river, its canals and tanks are under active consideration of the Government, official sources said. Chairman of Siruthuli S.V. Balasubramanian and Project Co-ordinator K. Mayilsamy submitted a proposal to the Minister for Public Works Department K.V. Ramalingam.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday accused the Centre of being least concerned about the Cauvery dispute, a livelihood issue for Tamil Nadu, as the Union government was suffering from “policy paralysis”.
Recalling a letter she wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh two months ago, urging him to convene the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) meeting, the Chief Minister, in a statement, lamented that till now, no action had been taken by the Centre.
The concern of Hegde and Subhash Chandra about the environment and cost economics of river diversion schemes is
commendable; however, given the limitations of the proposals recommended by the authors, the river diversion schemes
could be inevitable for the reasons mentioned in this note. In addition, it is pertinent to look at the water problem from
a river basin perspective where better options with long-term perspectives can be searched to manage the water crisis of
Bangalore city.
PMK leader S. Ramadoss on Sunday wanted Tamil Nadu to be declared drought-hit, as it was going through a period of severe crisis following the failure of South West monsoon and failure of Karnataka to release Cauvery water for Kuruvai cultivation.
He also wanted the State to waive crop loans and land tax, besides taking steps to increase days from 100 to 300 covered by the rural employment guarantee scheme.
The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday moved the Supreme Court for a direction to the Centre to convene a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority immediately to perform its statutory obligations and approve the distress sharing formula evolved by the Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) for sharing of flows of the Cauvery in view of the prevailing distress situation in Tamil Nadu.
In its application, the State said: “During the current irrigation year, 2012-2013, though the southwest monsoon is not vigorous in the Cauvery catchment of Karnataka, the State has received 21.9 tmcft in its four major reservoirs up to July 20,
The Kollidam Keezhanai Paasana Vivasayigal Sangam has urged MPs of all parties in Tamil Nadu to call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and impress upon him the need for getting the State’s due share of Cauvery water for the current crop season.
The Sangam, at a meeting convened at Kumaratchi near here, adopted a resolution, according to its president P. Vinayagamoorthy. He told The Hindu that since water from the Mettur dam was not opened on June 12, farmers in the tail-end delta region of Chidambaram and Kattumannarkoil taluks could not raise kuruvai crop.
The petroleum ministry on Tuesday promised expeditious clearances to a proposal made by Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries (RIL) and partner BP India to make fresh investments at four blocks at
Farmers in the Lower Bhavani (LBP) Project ayacut have appealed to the public works department to check the unauthorised pumping of water from the rivers and water carrying channels in the district immediately.
A few persons in the old ayacut of LBP, which comprises Thadapalli, Arakkankottai and Kalingarayan ayacuts, were drawing water illegally from the Bhavani and Cauvery rivers and water carrying channels using motor pumpsets.
The Madras High Court Bench here on Monday ordered for production of licences granted by the Collectors of Namakkal, Karur, Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts to the Public Works Department for quarrying sand along the stretches of rivers Cauvery, Amaravathi and Kollidam flowing through the six districts.
A Division Bench comprising Justice R. Banumathi and Justice G. . Akbar Ali passed the direction after it felt that the counter affidavits filed by the officials did not contain information sufficient for disposing of the case.
