Residents of Ellai Thottam and areas north of Avinashi Road are aggrieved at the Coimbatore Corporation for removing a portion of the dirt tract near the Ranga Vilas Mill Junction that served as a short cut to Avinashi Road.
The residents said that using an earthmover the civic body excavated earth on Monday morning to leave a crater on the tract. Students who moved south to education institutions on Avinashi Road and farther and similarly workers to went to units in Vilankurichi, Cheran Managar, Jeeva Udaya Nagar were affected.
They were forced to take a circuitous route either via Pioneer Mill Road or Thanneer Pandal Road to reach their destinations, complains P.V. Gopal, president, Peelamedu Consumer Voice.
The Corporation making the road inaccessible happened around 9 a.m. when people were busy moving towards their college/factory/office.
The dirt tract had provided an easy access for the past few to the residents, he says and adds that they were at a loss to understand the reason for the rather sudden action.
R. Venkatesan, a resident of Vijay Sri Garden, says that it was quite unfortunate that the Corporation had denied access to the residents without providing an alternative road. Workers like him would be forced to spend more on petrol to take children to school. He is a worker at a lathe.
Traffic
G. Rajamani, a resident of Sri Vijaya Garden, says that the move will increase the traffic on Pioneer Mill Road.
While admitting that it was only a dirt tract, adjoining a burial ground there, the residents say the Corporation could have first provided them an alternative route before developing the burial ground or denying access.
The Councillors of ward 37 and 38, however, have a different story to narrate. S. Vellingiri and D. Jothimani have, in identical written complaints, told the Peelamedu Police that Mr. Gopal, with an ulterior motive, had laid the dirt tract on a land that rightfully belonged to the Corporation.
The two Councillors told The Hindu that the Corporation was right in preventing access to the tract to the residents as the civic body wanted to prevent encroachments and take up development of the burial ground.
