Petitioners allege that biomedical waste, industrial effluents and municipal waste are being dumped into the river
A group of social activists has urged the district administration to take steps to protect the Tamirabharani which provides drinking water to several lakhs of people living in three southern districts.
A petition was submitted by the representatives of Annai Teresa Public Welfare Trust, Satta Panchayat Iyakkam, Tirunelveli District Public Welfare Committee and Tirunelveli Social Service Society during the weekly grievance day meet held at the Collectorate on Monday.
The petitioners said the Tamirabharani, which was nourishing standing crops on over a lakh acre and quenching the thirst of several lakhs of people living Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Virudhunagar districts, was becoming the ‘Cooum of Tirunelveli’ due to uncontrolled dumping of waste and draining of sewage into the river.
Moreover, dumping of biomedical waste, industrial effluents and municipal waste were going on for the past several decades even as local bodies were witnessing it without taking any action against the offenders.
“Even as the river has almost lost its sanctity and cleanliness as the official machinery refuses to act against polluters, irrigation channels getting water from the river have become drainage channels. When the river enters Tirunelveli Corporation limits, it flows like a drainage channel, much to the agony of those who love environment and nature. So, the district administration should take serious efforts to save the river,” the petitioners, led by Rev. Fr. Antony A. Cruz, said.
Shift booths
Residents of Seihul Akbar Street, Kalvath Nayagam Street, Aandavar first and third streets, all under ward 31 of Tirunelveli Corporation, said the polling booths 191 and 192, both functioning at St. Thomas Matriculation School at Kurichi was quite far off from their houses. So, the booths should be shifted to Muslim Higher Secondary School so as to enable the voters to cast their votes without any problem, they said.
A group of residents from Kadaiyaalurutti submitted a petition to the Collector seeking his intervention for permission to construct the official residence for the CSI priest. They said the construction of the residence for the priest commenced after getting proper permission from the village panchayat. But, the local body cancelled the permission after a few communal elements spread propaganda that the CSI Christians were in fact building a church and not the official residence for the parish priest.
“The village panchayat administration, after cancelling the building plan approval, refuses to grant permission even for the revised plan approval. So, the Collector should intervene to find amicable solution for this issue,” the petitioners said.
Cadres of Thamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, led by its office-bearer S.K.T. Kanmani Maaveeran submitted a petition seeking nod to instal a memorial for 17 persons who drowned in the Tamirabharani when violence erupted in the rally taken out in support of Maanjolai tea estate workers.
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