Tamilnadu Vivasayeegal Sangam (a farmers’ association) on Monday petitioned the Coimbatore district administration seeking action against industries that pollute the ground water in and around Rasipalayam, Muthukavundanpudur, Arasur and a few other areas in Sulur.
In its petition, the farmers’ body said its members had learnt that a fertilizer company, a few valves manufacturing industries and a few other engineering industries discharged their effluents into borewells on their premises. The effluents had polluted the ground water affecting farmers in Arugampalayam, Rasipalayam, Oothupalayam, Subbarayampalayam and Madhapur. Around 200 farmers and their lands, around 500 acre, were affected. The farmers had petitioned the district administration in this regard but no help was forthcoming. The coconut trees on the farms had lost their yielding capacity and new shoots wilted. The cattle the farmers reared would not consume the water, they said.
‘Act against corrupt officials’
Social Awareness Movement has urged the district administration to act against corrupt officials in the District Blindness Control Society (DBCS).
In its petition, the Movement said that though it had submitted a similar petition seeking action against the corrupt in July 2016, no action seemed to have been taken.
Through RTI petitions, it had learnt that the administration had forwarded the petition to the Coimbatore City Police, who had then forwarded it to the Race Course for inquiry. But the Race Course Police seemed to have returned the petition to the district administration saying that the jurisdiction for inquiry fell in the latter’s domain.
The inaction in the past few months led it to suspect that even senior officials could be involved in corruption, which was about procuring items for surgery at inflated cost.
The administration should at least now act on the petition in the right earnest and take to task the corrupt officials in the DBCS.
Demand
Sowripalayam People’s Welfare Association on Monday urged the district administration to shift liquor outlets from the area.
It said that the presence of four shops (Shops 1653, 1688, 1556 and 1952) had resulted in the area earning the moniker ‘Karaikal’, ‘Pondicherry’ and ‘TASMAC Stop’. Each of the shops were near a temple, or bus stop or hospital or school, the association said.
