‘Refuse cash for vote’

Corruption is the biggest pollution: Justice N. Kirubakaran

Madras High Court Judge Justice N. Kirubakaran on Saturday urged the people to turn down offers of cash for vote and termed corruption as the biggest pollution in society.

“Do [we] vote without accepting money? Where do they [politicians] get the money given to voters? The root cause is because people’s minds have polluted,” said Mr. Justice Kirubakaran at the sixth anniversary of Vanathukkul Tiruppur , a project by non-governmental organisation ‘Vetry’, in Tiruppur on Saturday.

“Refuse cash for vote. This will remove the disease that has infected the society. This is the biggest pollution in the society. If we get rid of this pollution, politicians and officials will not have the justification to indulge in corruption,” he said.

Mr. Justice Kirubakaran also pointed out that sand, mining of which is banned in Kerala, is sold illegally to the neighbouring State with the support of officials in Tamil Nadu, and medical waste is brought back from there.

‘Vanathukkul Tiruppur’

He released an environmental impact study of Vanathukkul Tiruppur project under which NGO ‘Vetry’ planted 10.5 lakh tree saplings in Tiruppur district in the last six years.

Sivaram T.R., founder of ‘Vetry’, said that the environmental impact study was conducted by another NGO, which found that the trees planted under the project so far had a survival rate of 88.4% and they sequestered 7,377 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The NGO had recorded 79 species of birds, and 65 species of butterflies in the total plantation area of 2,071 acres.

S. Sundaresan, Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, Tiruppur Circle, K. Kalidas of ‘Osai’ NGO from Coimbatore and members of ‘Vetry’ took part in the event.