TIRUNELVELI
The Central team, headed by Sanjeev Kumar Jindal of the Ministry of Home Affairs, visited some of the flood-hit areas in the southern part of Tirunelveli district on Friday along with Commissioner for Revenue Administration K. Satyagopal and Commissioner for Agricultural Production Gagandeep Singh Bedi.
After a brief discussion at Public Works Department guest house at Valliyoor in the morning, the team inspected a collapsed bridge between Avaranthazhai and Thalavaipuram near Thirukkurunkudi. The one-year-old yet-to-be opened bridge, constructed at a cost of ₹40 lakh, collapsed in the flood on December 1.
Mr. Satyagopal said the Superintending Engineer of the Department of Highways had been asked to investigate into the charge of poor quality construction against the contractor.
“If the charge is found to be true, those who are responsible for this loss will have to face serious legal action,” Mr. Satyagopal said.
The team inspected the damaged house of one Ramaiah of Nambithalaivanpattaiyam, banana saplings destroyed by gale in the farm of agriculturist Shaik Mohamed of Ervadi and the low-level bridge constructed in 2009 to connect Sirumalanji and Anaikkarai at a cost of ₹26 lakh by District Rural Development Agency.
Collector Sandeep Nanduri, Cheranmahadevi Sub-Collector P. Akash, Assistant Collector (Training) Ilam Bhagavath, District Revenue Officer P. Muthuramalingam, Joint Director of Agriculture L. Perumal and senior officials accompanied the Central team that later left for Chennai.
Another part of the team visited the cyclone-hit areas of Thiruppathisaram, Suchindram, Karkadu, Osaravilai, Vadakku Thamaraikulam, Muttom, Petchiparai and Colachel in Kanniyakumari district for the second day on Friday before leaving for Chennai to have a review meeting with Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami in the evening.
