Groundwater level has increased by 0.6 metres
Rs. 20 crore has been allocated for supplying water across the State, says TWAD Board managing director The groundwater level has increased from 18.10 metres below ground level (pre-monsoon) to 17.5
Rs. 20 crore has been allocated for supplying water across the State, says TWAD Board managing director The groundwater level has increased from 18.10 metres below ground level (pre-monsoon) to 17.5
To harvest rainwater, 150 check dams would be constructed in the district, Minister for Highways and Minor Ports Edapadi K. Palaniswami said here on Sunday. Inaugurating the newly-constructed Primary Agricultural Co-operative Credit Society at Rs. 17.07 lakh in Vellalapatti in Omalur taluk, Mr. Palaniswami said that preserving rainwater would enable the rise in ground water level, solve drinking water problems and provide adequate water supply for agricultural activities.
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 State government has released a sum of Rs.5.36 crore to all village panchayats in the district to meet basic amenities and infrastructure needs during the first quarter of the current fiscal through the State Finance Commission grant, according to District Collector V.Shobana. That apart another Rs.3.9 crore has been sanctioned to eight panchayat unions and a further Rs.80 lakh for the district panchayat to undertake development works. Ms.Shobana pointed out that utilising the funds, the panchayats could undertake drinking water provision works, street lighting, public sanitation, roads, bridges, and basic infrastructure improvement works in the respective areas .
The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has caught four illegal dyeing units during raids carried out along the banks of River Noyyal on Thursday evening and Friday. Official sources said the units, located in the hinterlands of Tirupur, were found dyeing the yarns and discharging the effluents generated in the process to drains that lead to River Noyyal.
Tamilaga Vivasayigal Sangam has convened a meeting on July 22 at Periyanaickenpalayam to plan a massive demonstration to oppose land acquisition for the proposed alignment of the Kangeyampalayam – Neelambur – Mettupalayam bypass road and the proposed toll plaza. Talking to reporters, president of the Sangam, M.R. Sivasamy said that the alignment of the proposed bypass road would only affect agriculture and buildings. The alignment would also increase the distance between Coimbatore and Mettupalayam as well as travelling time.
2,407 out of 2,449 tanks are completely dry and wells have very little water With the dry spell continuing in the district and the storage level in the major reservoirs going down alarmingly due to poor precipitation in the catchment areas, farmers have appealed to the State Government to declare Tirunelveli as ‘drought-hit district’ and provide adequate relief to save the agriculturists. Making this appeal in the monthly farmers’ grievance day meeting held at the Collectorate on Friday, R. Kasamuthu, secretary, Tirunelveli District Farmers’ Association, said 2,407 of the 2,449 irrigation tanks in the district were bone-dry while the wells had water sufficient for only 15 to 20 minutes pumping.
One more civic issue comes to the fore within a month as Ellis Nagar residents complain of uninhabitable conditions A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court Bench here on the basis of a news report that appeared in The Hindu on March 12 under the title ‘Life is hellish at Ellis Nagar’ highlighting the predicament of people living amid stagnant sewage, heaps of garbage, swarms of mosquitoes, unbearable stench and constant threat of infectious diseases.
Adequate technology and experience are available with the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) for transporting spent fuel from one location to another by rail and road in a safe manner without any public hazard. This was stated in a note when a batch of petitions relating to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) came up before a Division Bench of Justices P. Jyothimani and M. Duraisamy for further hearing on Thursday. The note, filed through NPCIL counsel Krishna Srinivasan, stated that at Kudankulam, spent fuel from the reactors would be stored in the spent fuel pool designed for the storage of spent fuel assembly.
Condemning the Centr’s decision to go ahead with the proposal to construct third and fourth nuclear reactors at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) site with Russian assistance, the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) has urged Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to take immediate steps to stop the expansion proposal. A statement from the PMANE said that anti-KKNPP activists, during their meeting with Ms. Jayalalithaa in September, had urged her to take all-out efforts to stop the upcoming nuclear power project as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did in the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited’s Haripur Nuclear Power Project
Over two hundred farmers affiliated to an apolitical forum, Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam, staged a demonstration here on Wednesday to protest against the Gas Authority of India Limited’s (GAIL) choice of farmland in the district to lay gas pipeline to take natural gas from Kochi to Bangalore. The gas pipeline project of GAIL passes through 16 revenue villages in Krishnagiri district for a stretch of 47 km. As per the plan of GAIL, the pipeline work enters Krishnagiri district in Royakottai from Palacode in Dharmapuri district.