Portions of a private rice mill, owned by K.N. Manivannan, a brother of former Transport Minister K.N. Nehru, allegedly encroaching upon Panguni Vaykal, an important irrigation canal at Poovalur near Lalgudi, were pulled down during a major eviction drive taken up by the Public Works Department here on Sunday.
The operation commenced after PWD officials marked the “encroached area” along the canal that runs adjacent to the S.N.R. Rice Industries.
Official sources said the private rice mill had encroached upon the canal to an extent of 1,200 square metres and diverted its course during the previous DMK rule.
The owner through the Revenue authorities had also allegedly mooted a proposal, offering to provide an equal extent of land in lieu of the encroached space.
However, the Commissioner of Land Administration had objected to the proposal on the grounds that the width of the canal has been shrunk and the alternative land would not ensure free flow of water in the canal.
Structures on the “encroached area” were pulled down one after other by the PWD authorities deploying earthmovers.
Police security
These were “unauthorised and illegal structures on a water course poramboke,” officials maintained. The eviction was carried out amid tight police security under the supervision of the District Revenue Officer T. Thiyagarajan, Superintendent of Police Lalitha Lakshmi and PWD officials.
Party men and villagers in and around Poovalur thronged the rice mill as news of the eviction operation spread like wild fire.
A heavy posse of police personnel were deployed as a precautionary measure in front of the rice mill as well as in some of the nearby areas.
