The district administration has taken a major initiative to rejuvenate the traditional water bodies and their inlet channels from the catchment areas at a cost of Rs 1.82 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) Scheme.

Besides this, the authorities also proposed to remove the blockades in channels that connected these water bodies with the Palar River for a stretch of about 20 kms from Pallikonda to Vellore before the onset of the southwest monsoon in July.

In a bid to do away with problems of open defecation, construction of toilets has become mandatory for beneficiaries of Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY). For the period 2011-2012, a total of 2,995 houses are being constructed in Tirupattur and surrounding seven panchayat unions under IAY scheme, according to officials of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department.

People of Kavasambattu facing acute water scarcity for drinking and irrigation

The indiscriminate and continuous quarrying of sand from the Palar river bed in Kavasambattu village in Katpadi taluk for the last seven years has resulted in the drying up of agricultural wells and domestic wells and the consequent decline in agriculture in the village.

Flay move to establishsub-station in Ilayanallur

About 20 farmers of Ilayanallur village panchayat in Katpadi taluk began a relay fast on Monday on their lands, which were to be acquired by the Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI) for establishing a 765/400-KV sub-station. The PGCI has decided to establish the sub-station, which would a reception point for the power to be received from Gujarat for connection to the State Grid, as part of the measures being taken by the Tamil Nadu government to overcome the crippling power scarcity .

The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Vellore has adopted a cluster approach in undertaking various works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in order to enable more villagers to get employment, according to N. Srinivasan, Project Officer of the DRDA.

Talking to newspersons at the Alangulam irrigation tank in Melappulam village panchayat in Arcot panchayat union where the work of deepening of the tank under MGNREGS was under progress on Wednesday, Mr. Srinivasan said that if there are more than 200 workers in a village panchayat, a new cluster would be started, comprising workers from a group of habitations. Under this approach,

Farmers optimism on the state government giving a new lease to the Palar river has come a cropper with media reports suggesting that the Karnataka Government plans to block the flow of water to the Pennaiyar River altogether. Farmers here were optimistic that the state government would take up with the Union Ministry of Water Resources, the proposal to divert the excess flow of water from the Thenpennaiyar River below Krishnagiri reservoir to the water-starved Palar basin through a Pennaiyar-Palar link project.

Ambur, Vaniyambadi and Pernambut areas are reportedly bearing the brunt

VELLORE/ THIRUVANNAMALAI: The unscheduled power cuts prevailing across the state have led to the convergence of a focused demand for the early commissioning of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (

CHENNAI: With a view to checking rain water from flowing into the sea and storing water received from Krishna River for the residents of Chennai and its surrounding areas, Chief Minister J Jayalali

The State government has sanctioned works, estimated to cost around Rs.11.49 crore, for the artificial recharge of groundwater.

They cover the formation of subsurface dykes, percolation ponds, check dams and recharge shafts/ tube wells. A release on Tuesday stated that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had approved the proposals.