Sfcrl ThaueliBga* Nadar (Nager- ■coil): Mr. Chairman, Sir, I take this opportunity to draw the attention of this Ministry to some of the irrigation and power scheme* proposed by the Madras Government. The Madras Government has almost exhausted all the irrigation and power resource* available within the boundary ■of the State The State has now to depend for its irrigation resources on Andhra, Mysore or Kerala. The Andhra Government, of course, is quite willing to share the excess waters of Kistna river, but the Madras Government is of the opinion that it is too costly
In Kerala there are vast resource* for irrigation. That is a small State very near the coast with plenty of rivers, some of them are even perennial Immediately after the hills there are the lakes The distance between the lakes and hills is t not much Therefore, the rivers take tfaeir sources in the hills and immediately fall into the sea on the west. The waters o f such rivers can be usefully diverted to the eastern side of those ghats, that w, Madras.
Four districts Ttnneveli, Madura Ramnad and Coimbatore, each with a population of 30 lakhs to 40 lakhs, are the most dry areas of the Madras Stafaf There is plenty of land The only thing required is to provide irrigation facilities, and that is available in the Kerala State Five such proposals seem to have been made bv the Madras Government. They are*(1) the Parambikulam Schame about which the governments of Kerala and Madras have come to an agreement,(2) the Punalur project, (8) the Pambayar project, (4) the Upper Periyar project and (8) the Kallar -project. A ll thaae projects art highly economical and highly useful, both for Kerala State as well as Madras State.
The peculiarity is that the Kerala State cannot use thaae waters for any other purpose than, if at all, for power because there is no land available in Kerala. The problem is that there is plenty of water in Kerala but no land, whereas in ffiidras there is plenty of land but no water.
Shri Thaanlingam Nadar: If boththese States combine and they put their heads together things will improve You all know that Madras is a deficit State, and Kerala is still worse deficit State in rice. If the border areas of Kerala—that is, Madras—by these waters become more fertile and produce more rice, a part of the benefit will go to KeralaBut there is another difficulty At tlys beginning of this discussion the hon Speaker was pleased to observe that there is no question of politics ;n irrigation and power But I doubt whether this will apply to Kerala. I am not referring to the present Government There is no question of politics between Government and Government, but the internal politics of Kerala is so hopeless that it stands in the way of these agreements being reached between the two States In regard to the Parambikulam scheme itself they have come to an agreement only after bargaining for two years. Ultimately even the Zonal Council had to interfere What is this due to* If one party which is ih power comes to an agreement with another State to share the waters or any other thing, the party in the Opposition complain that the party in power has given all waters to the other State, everything has gone phut, this, that and the other, with the resalt that the party in power is afraid to "<fm te an agreement I am not rslsrilag toany particular party. But that u the «tuation. It ia the Communist Party 'Quit ia now m power l b * party by itself ia not againet i t But u W afraid o f the Congress Party Therefore, in raapeet o f the Panmbikulam scheme itself it ao happened that the party in power convened an all-party meeting to discuts the questio
Shrl T t a n l i a i f Nadar: Eitherthe PSP will not take part in it or the Congress will not take part in it Finally, the local Congress was ao influenced aa to pa^s a separate resolution m their party meeting agreeing to this scheme, and then the Communist Party had to agree to this agreement It took two years That was a scheme included in the Second Five Year Plan and it was delayed for two years They are now goihg to hurry it up But the difficulty u that the internal politics there will affect very seriously this project and the efforts of the two governments in the execution of this scheme There fore, my request is, this is a fit case where the Central Government ahould interfere, not as a supreme authority or anything like that but with its goodwill it can smoothen and expedite the agreement In that way it ean try to do something to Madras as well as Kerala Sir, in Kerala the water u a nuisance They have got their Master Plan and all that It may be good for electricity, but where is the space for irrigation’ I know something about Kerala Before reorganisation I was in the Travancore-Cochin State In the old central Travaneore the problem is not one of want o f water, but it is a problem of nuisance atwater Much damage ia caused by ram water destroying paddy fields There they pump out water and cultivate In the rainy season the whole thing is damaged by rain water If that is prevented or checked, it is to the advantage of Kerala and, at the n in e time, it will serve the parpaaia tMadras alee If the border areas
of Kerala produce more nee as a result of this scheme, the food deficit in Kerala will be minimised and their difficulty, in regard to water nuisance will also be minimised
Therefore, I would appeal to the Kerala Government and Also to the Central Government to approach this problem in a wise and cool manner and see that these proposals made by the Madras Government are agreed to as early aa possible, so that they can at least be included in the Third Five Year* Plan and work started from the ver> beginning of the PlanAnother point is this The Kanya Kuman district to which I belong was formerly in the Travmncore-Cochin State It forms part of the Madras State only since the reorganisation of States Certain schenies there have been investigated, namely. Chittar I and II Now, they have to get fresh permission and sanction from the Central Government so as to include these schemes in the second Five Year Plan Since this area was in TruankuSvargam and belonged neither to the Madras State nor to the Ttavancore- Cochin State, none o f the authorities cared to investigate further Now, they have been investigated and detailed estimates have been submitted It may be that the Madras Government will ask for sanction to include them in the second Five Year Plan Therefore, I request this Ministry to give sanction as early as possibleI would also like to associate myself with the opinion expressed by t^e previous speaker who spoke just before me about minor irrigation I do not understand why it should form part of another Ministry, the Ministry at Food and Agriculture There ia one Ministry for Irrigation Why should tiie minor irrigation work alone form part of another Ministry then9 When it is minor irrigation, people immediately think that it ia the duty of the Irrigation Ministry to look into i t When we go to tha Irrigation Ministry they say “it is not our matter” and that it comes under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture I do not understand this tIt is deceiving the people What purpose does it serve? Nobody has explained that also, nobody has said what the benefit of this procedure is Only there is confusion and want of coordination So, it is high time that the Government thought over this thing and reallotted minor irrigation to the Irrigation Ministry itself so as to have co-ordinationWith these words, I once again request the Ministry to exercise and use its good offices in bringing a rapid, quick agreement between the Madras and Kerala Governments on diverting tiie west-flowing waters to the Madras State
https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/1723/1/lsd_02_07_23-03-1959.pdf page 78
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