Residents up in arms as contractors stall drainage construction

Coimbatore: Residents besieged the Othakalmandapam panchayat Office on Thursday after contractors stalled the drainage construction work on the Nataraja Gounder Layout.
The panchayat had sanctioned Rs 1cr to lay roads and construct drains in the 1km stretch in the residential area. The work began 10 days ago. The workers dug out the roads to construct drains. At one particular stretch, four house owners objected to the drain constructed in front of their homes.

“They used political pressure and their connection with the local legislative member to stall the work. On Thursday morning, they closed the drains that had been dug out by filling them with sand,” said V Kalpana, a resident.

As per Selvakumar, another resident in the area, the gradient of the road was such that the drain had to be constructed on that stretch. “The road runs east-west and the drain has to be constructed on the left side for the water to flow without any blockage. But, these four house owners are using political pressure and all the other 100 houses have to suffer,” he said.

The executive officer of the panchayat and the other local engineers had already approved the design and ordered the workers to complete the work. “Everyone in this area has connections with AIADMK. We cannot understand how they can use their political influence for such purposes,” said Shanmugam, a resident.

The residents said that for more than a week, they did not get water supply as all the pipelines in the area had been damaged when the roads were dug out. “This is a government project and the officials are executing it based on the technical expertise. How can they change the direction of the drain based on their whims and fancies,” asked S Valarmathi.