10 mths on, pvt apartment yet to pay up for digging up road, damaging cables

Coimbatore: It has been more than 10 months since two government bodies slapped penalty on a private apartment on Nanjundapuram Road for digging up the road without prior permission and damaging underground cables. But till date, the apartment has not paid the fine.
Commuters on Nanjundapuram Road were shocked to see a 15ft-deep trench on the road after a rainy day in March last year. Complaints were registered, asking authorities to fix the road after several people fell into the pit.

“It is only after the state highways department initiated an inquiry that it was revealed that the resident welfare association of the apartment had dug up the road with heavy machines to connect a sewage pipeline from the apartment to the sewage treatment plant just a few yards away,” recalled the petitioner, S Kanagasundaram, a civic activist.

Even though the association members claimed to have got prior permission for the work, the inquiry revealed it to be false.

According to the notice issued by the department to the association, “The association members had sought permission only to make a 10m long and 2m deep trench and had paid Rs 20,500 for doing restoration work. But, the department did not give work order to carry out the work.”

They had further directed the association to pay Rs 2.30lakh in addition to the paid amount for violating the highway norms and digging up the road without informing anyone.

Also, it came to light that they had damaged four main optical fiber cables of BSNL, due to which, connection was hindered to several government departments apart from educational institutions and banks, said the petitioner, citing the notice issued to the association by BSNL.

For causing inconvenience to the public and damaging the cables, BSNL had slapped a penalty of Rs 6lakh. “In total, they will have to pay Rs 8.30lakh. But, till date, they did not pay a single rupee. Ideally, the officials could initiate prosecution against the association members for not paying the penalty within the stipulated time,” Kanagasundaram said, citing a recent RTI reply. He said that only if stringent action was taken against the violators, such instances will be reduced. He had filed a complaint with Ramanathapuram police as well.

Meanwhile, the association members had written to the highways department claiming that they were not aware that the work should done only after issuing work order and urged them to provide permission to dig up the road. They also requested the officials to waive the penalized amount.