As the people of the arid district faced acute drinking water shortage after the failure of north east monsoon, the district police have stepped in with an ambitious project to desilt at least 20 ponds at various police sub divisions in the district.
Superintendent of Police N. Manivannan who launched the desilting work of the pond at Gokula Mavilangai village in Chathirakudi police limit near here on Tuesday, said, “This is our humble effort to address the water crisis in the drought prone district.”
When the district administration had taken steps on war footing to address the water crisis, the police on their part wanted to adopt and maintain ponds in a few villages, the SP said. Police have stepped in, also to convey the message to the villagers that they could not remain indifferent when their water sources were encroached upon or became defunct, the SP said.
Police officers in their respective sub divisions would supervise the cleaning and desilting work by involving the men in respective police stations, the SP said. All the 20 ponds would be made ready to receive water as and when it rained in the district, he said. With the help of the district administration, police were also taking steps to dig ring wells in the ponds to address the water problem for the time being, he added.
Most of the ponds were infested with the invasive seemai karuvelam (prosopis juliflora) trees and police have started removing the growth. “We have removed 50 % of the trees at the pond in Gokula Mavilangai village on the first day itself,” the SP told The Hindu . Collector S. Natarajan, who inspected the work, commended the police for their humane gesture.
Additional SP (headquarters) T. Inbamani, Paramakudi DSP Karuppaiah, Sathirakudi Inspector of Police Gunasekaran and Special Branch (SB) Inspector of Police Balamurugan were present at the site. Works were simultaneously started in Mandapam and Kilakarai police limits, Ramanathan, SB Sub Inspector of Police, who was appointed as the nodal officer, said.
Police have also tied up with the Rotary club, Rotary club of Golden Ramnad and managements of National Academy, Indian School, Syed Ammal Engineering College, Islamic Matriculation School, Erwadi Dargah Committee and Erwadi Makkal Iyakkam to remove the seemai karuvelam trees, he said.
