Protest forces civic body to cancel inauguration of works

Residents of a host of colonies staged a protest at Ondipudur on Monday against the Coimbatore Corporation’s move to establish a sewage treatment plant there.

The Corporation cancelled a function to mark the beginning of the works on STP planned at the site.

According to sources, residents of Sindhu Nagar, Bharathi Nagar, Noyyal Nagar, Kamban Nagar, Shastri Nagar, and Thiruvalluvar Nagar, went to the site and raised slogans and reportedly tore down the banners that were erected there.

The residents said that if the STP were to come up at the site, their livelihoods would be affected. The ground water would be polluted. In short, the STP would be against their interests.

The sources said that around 150 residents had gathered there.

Sources in the Corporation said that they had to cancel the function because of the residents protest, though there was no official word on it. A few others said that the function was cancelled because Mayor S.M. Velusamy, who was supposed to mark the inauguration of works there, had left for Chennai.

The Corporation had acquired land in Ondipudur to construct the STP, which would have a capacity to treat 60 million litres a day. The STP was part of the underground drainage work the civic body had taken up under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission scheme.