T.N. Assembly | Duraimurugan refutes concerns that Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar river linking project has slowed down

The Tamil Nadu government is keen to swiftly complete the Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar river linking project, Minister for Water Resources, Duraimurugan, said in the Legislative Assembly on Saturday.

The Tamil Nadu government is keen to swiftly complete the Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar river linking project, Minister for Water Resources, Duraimurugan, said in the Legislative Assembly on Saturday.

Refuting concerns expressed by the AIADMK through a call attention motion in the Assembly that the project had slowed down after the DMK came to power, Mr. Duraimurugan said the land acquisition and canal digging work had in fact been speeded up over the past two years.

Though an allocation of ₹600 crore was made in 2020 towards land acquisition by the previous AIADMK government, only ₹34.31 crore was spent, and 71.6 acres of land were acquired, he said. The unspent money went back to the government that year.

In contrast, the present government had allocated ₹312 crore in the past two years and acquired 698.97 acres. Moreover, the DMK government had made a provision to retain the unspent money in a deposit for further use towards land acquisition instead of returning it by the end of financial year.

Pointing out that no work happened towards canal digging in 2020-21 during the AIADMK rule, he said the present government had allocated ₹177.9 crore in the past two years and completed 64% of the targeted work. A further allocation of ₹554.17 crore towards land acquisition and ₹111.52 crore towards digging a canal had been made for 2023-24, the Minister noted.

Earlier, AIADMK MLA C. Vijayabaskar from Viralimalai constituency, who moved the motion, said that though the project was a dream of many Chief Ministers, it was former Chief Edappadi K. Palaniswami who allocated funds and commenced the work.

Quipping that Mr. Vijayabaskar was trying to make it seem as if only the previous AIADMK government had done all the work, Mr. Duraimurugan said the construction of the barrage in Mayanur for the project was launched during the DMK’s rule in 2009.