The Coimbatore Corporation had a few months ago dug borewells in Ward 52. Three of those borewells were defunct, though the depth was around 800 ft, complained the ward councillor A. Nandhakumar.
Mr. Nandhakumar said that the reason the borewells in his ward were defunct was because the officials had not chosen the right places. If only the officials had taken into confidence the residents or councillors, they would have told the engineers about the right place.
He was not alone, though. Ward 96 councillor K.N. Senthilkumar had a more or less similar grievance. In his area and also in the neighbouring wards, the contractors who undertook the task of digging borewells did not go dig past the 500-foot mark because the Rs. 5 lakh the Corporation sanctioned was good enough for digging only up to 500 feet.
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In Kurichi and other areas, water was available only around the 700-foot mark. But the contractors stopped with 500-foot mark because of shortage of funds. As a result, public money was wasted.
Even as a few other councillors went about narrating the status of borwells in their wards,
Mayor S.M. Velusamy sought an explanation from the City Engineer in-charge K. Sugumar as to why the contractors did not dig past the 500-foot mark or so.
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“It is like cutting the foot to the size of the shoe,” he remarked and asked the engineer to ensure that the contractors dug borewells until they accessed water. And for the additional digging, they could always approach the Council for sanction.
Ward 7 councillor K. Chinnasamy said that the civic body officials were to yet to fix motor for one of the three borewells, though it was dug months ago.
A few other councillors said that at many places in their wards, the authorities had either not obtained power connection for motors fitted to the borewells or not purchased motors.
He also accused the officials of not consulting the residents or councillors in deciding the place to dig the borewells.
Following allegations from the councillors, the Mayor asked the Corporation Commissioner to prepare a list of places where the civic body had dug borewells, the places where the borewells were in working condition, places where the officials were yet to obtain power connection and places where the motors were under repair.
Mr. Velusamy also told the officials to consult the public and councillors before deciding the place for digging borewells.