Thanjavur: The ‘Tamil Nadu Neervala Padukappu Kootiyakkam (Tamil Nadu water resources protection federation) here has decided to desilt Kallaperambur lake near Thanjavur during this summer.
Announcing this to press persons here on Sunday, S.Pazhanirajan, co-coordinator of the ‘kootiyakkam’ said that the irrigators association of the lake had collected `9 lakh and gave it to district collector for desilting the lake two years back.
Tamil Nadu government has also allotted Rs 90 lakh for desilting the lake. But due to some unknown reasons, work has not yet been started. “This summer, we (Kottiyakkam) will urge the government to desilt the lake. If Government does not do it, we ourselves will do the work,” Pazhanirajan said.
The sprawling lake on 645 acres has an ayacut of 4,000 acres. If water is available in the lake, it will increase the underground water table in towns like Thanjavur, he said.
He also said that the ‘kootiyakkam’ was formed on July 25 at Chennai and 20 organisations are part of it. District-level units of the kootiyakkam have been formed in Ariyalur, Tiruvarur, Tiruchy, and Vidurudnagar districts. “Our aim is to restore water bodies in Tamil Nadu from encroachments and renovate them by taking up works like desilting,” he said.
“We have already desilted Poigaikudi lake near Peravurani in Thanjavur district,” he said.
A district-level meeting of the Kootiyakkam was also held at Thanjavur on Sunday. G. Thirunavukarasu of ‘Thazhanmai Uzhavar Iyakkam’, Pazha Maravaraman of ‘Ulaga Thirukural Peravai’ and others participated in the meeting.
