Vaigai riverbed turns into a sports ground

Kabaddi tournament conducted right on riverbed off Sellur

September 11, 2017 07:36 am | Updated 07:36 am IST - Madurai

Under floodlights: Vaigai riverbed near Sellur where a two-day kabbadi tournament was conducted.

Under floodlights: Vaigai riverbed near Sellur where a two-day kabbadi tournament was conducted.

By this time, with north-east monsoon round the corner, the district administration would have issued an advisory to the residents living in the low-lying areas along the Vaigai to keep away from the riverbed.

The administration would have even asked the people to keep their cattle at a safe distance from the swirling waters. But, even as the city received over 100 mm of rainfall, as recorded in Tallakulam on Friday, a ground was readied for conducting a two-day kabaddi tournament on Saturday and Sunday under floodlights on the riverbed itself off Sellur.

“I wonder how the Public Works Department, which is the custodian of the river allow such events to be conducted on the riverbed,” said former PWD Executive Engineer S. Suthanthira Amalraj.

When PWD officials told him that the department did not allow the organisers to use the riverbed for the sports event, he knocked at the doors of the district administration. However, he was told that the organisers had obtained an order from the High Court for the conduct of the tournament .

“Neither the PWD nor the district administration has permitted the sports event on the riverbed,” Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao said.

However, he has asked the PWD officials to take action on the issue, he added. The riverbed was landscaped and barricades were put up with casuarina poles.

“Events like these spoil the sanctity of the river that caters to the water requirements of lakhs of people,” Mr. Amalraj said.

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