Highlighting the poor condition of the FCI Godown Road that branches off Sathyamangalam Road in Ganapathy, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam staged a protest on Tuesday.
A. Maheshkumar, DMK ward secretary, and resident of the area, said the road had been in very bad shape for the last 10 years as the Food Corporation of India that was in-charge of maintaining the road had not bothered to rebuild it.
As a result, the road was full of potholes and during rain the potholes were filled with rainwater and the road turned slushy causing several accidents. In fact, driving on the road was a huge challenge during rain.
Several motorists had injured themselves after losing balance while trying to negotiate the pothole-filled road and car riders had their vehicles damaged.
Being an important road that connected Sathyamangalam Road with eastern parts of the city, thousands of two wheelers and cars and hundreds of lorries that went to the FCI godown and LPG refilling depot there used the road.
Therefore, the residents and DMK cadre joined hands to draw the attention of the authorities concerned, Mr. Maheshkumar added.
Singanallur MLA N. Karthik, who led the protests, said the district administration and State government were to be blamed for the poor condition of the road as they should have written to the FCI seeking no-objection for maintaining the road.
Despite reminders and raising the issue in the Assembly, the two had failed, Mr. Karthik said and added that if there was no solution in the next 10 to 15 days, the DMK would stage a ‘road roko’ agitation.
The police detained around 700 persons who participated in the protest.