Palar restoration a major poll issue in northern districts

Vellore: After more than a decade of drought, farmers and environmentalists in the districts of Vellore, Tiruvannamalai and Kancheepuram saw some water in Palar river only last December. It was an aberration caused by an unusually heavy downpour. With no chance of seeing some water in the river till another unprecedented monsoon hits the state, people are eagerly waiting to see if political parties take up Palar restoration project as part of their election manifesto to bring life back into the river.
With continuous plundering of mineral rich sand of Palar for decades, sand mafia has reduced the riverbed's water storage capacity.On the other hand, there is no letup in discharge of effluents into the river. Without any water in the river to flush it out into the sea, the ground water is getting contaminated.
The stakeholders' cries for attention to revive the river, which is the lifeline for three northern districts and some parts of Chennai's outskirts, has mounted pressure on political parties to come up with schemes to revive the river. It was one of the two perennial rivers – the other being Tamiraparani in Tirunelveli district - in the state for ages. The flow became seasonal and scarce in Palar after Andhra Pradesh constructed multiple check dams in the upper reaches of the river.
The two Dravidian majors – DMK and AIADMK – that have ruled the state for over four decades have failed miserably in designing projects to breathe life into the river. "There is no political will to stop sand mining from the riverbed. Indiscriminate mining has depleted groundwater level in the region," Kanchi Amudhan, an activist, said.
Chief minister J Jayalalithaa had announced in 2014 that her government would take up a project to link Thenpennai and Palar rivers. It was aimed at diverting flood water from Krishnagiri Reservoir at Nedungal to the Palar river basin via Kallaru by digging a 54 km long canal. However, the project is yet to materialize, though it was first proposed way back in 2008.
"The AIADMK government did not give concurrence to the detailed project report submitted by the National Water Development Agency in July last year. We have lost faith in AIADMK," said A C Venkatesan of Tamil Nadu Pasumai Pathukappu Iyakkam.
DMK hasn't been of any help in the past. M K Stalin, during his Namakku Namae campaign in Vaniyambadi, promised that if voted to power, his government would take up Netravathi-Palar linking project to bring water to Palar from Kolar district in Karnataka. The party's election manifesto, released on Sunday, says it will implement Palar-Thenpennai-Cauvery link project.
No party has so far lived up to the expectations of the people of Vellore. "We want a government, which will maintain a cordial relationship with neighbouring states, particularly AP, to succeed in implementing the river linking projects," said A Ashokan, another activist.
PMK's chief ministerial candidate Anbumani Ramadoss, during his recent interaction with Velloreans, said that his party would build check dams at every 5 km interval along the 221 km course of Palar to revive it, if his party was voted to power.
Similarly, DMDK leader Premalatha Vijayakanth said that the PWF alliance would take steps to stop sand smuggling and revive the river to improve agricultural activity.