Those in Ondipudur on Monday petitioned District Collector M. Karunagaran, against the Coimbatore Corporation’s move to construct a sewage treatment plant there.
The petition was signed by residents of Weavers’ Colony, Sindhu Nagar, Bharathi Nagar, Kumaran Nagar, Cheran Nagar, Shastri Nagar, Thiruvalluvar Nagar, Noyyal Nagar, Ramachandra Nagar, MGR Nagar, Kamarajar Nagar, Bannari Amman Nagar, Kamban Nagar and Rani Garden.
They alleged that the civic body had proposed to construct the plant without taking into account their opinion. Farm lands have been encroached upon by violating the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board rules.
Groundwater level would be affected too, the petition said. The Corporation had said that the 14.34-acre site was chosen after the State Technical Committee approved the same. The District Collector had forwarded the proposal.
The land chosen, however, was under well irrigation. It was close to River Noyyal.
The land status was converted from irrigated to fallow after making necessary alterations on the ground, the petition said.
The distance between the human settlement and the site would be hardly 250 m instead of the stipulated 500 m. The Corporation had said that it would adopt the safe sequential batch reactor technology in the plant. But in places where the technology had been adopted, complaints were in plenty from the residents. Keeping in mind the residents’ interests and the failure to abide by various laws, the district administration should initiate efforts to ensure that the Coimbatore Corporation did not proceed with the project at the site.
