The much-awaited season at Courtallam commenced on Friday night on a great note as the Main Falls and the Five Falls witnessed floods following good rainfall in the Western Ghats.
Consequently, the tourist destination that wore a deserted look till Friday afternoon attracted significant crowd on Saturday that even caused traffic snarls in this small town.
After the Western Ghats witnessed incessant drizzle since Friday afternoon, all waterfalls had good influx of water in the night and the tourists were prevented from taking bath in the Main Falls and the Five Falls after 7.30 p.m. following floods that subsided on Saturday morning to enable the tourists to have a scintillating bath.
The Courtallam traders, who enjoyed excellent business in 2015 and suffered hefty loss last year, geared up for a new season with new hopes.
“We expect good business this year as the season has started at the right time on a high note,” said N. Murugan, a fruit vendor.
Since the tourist destination has only one liquor shop against last year’s three shops and the nearby Tenkasi does not have any liquor shop, the area where the shop is located remained mobbed by a few hundred revellers till 10 p.m. However, there is no mechanism to check the drunkards causing problems to the tourists and the manoeuvring of vehicles under the influence of alcohol.
No breathalyser had been used at Courtallam till Saturday evening as mandated by the Madras High Court.
“The deployment of a minimum of 10 breathalysers at vantage points of Courtallam will keep the troublesome drunkards at bay, which will ensure a sense of security in the minds of women and children,” says G. Vijayalakshmi from nearby Pavoorchathram.
The Tirunelveli–Shencottai highway, which would be handling a few thousand vehicles everyday during the ‘Courtallam Season’, is in the worst shape and the road-users, especially bike riders, have to be doubly cautious even as they take this 64 km-long stretch.
With dangerous potholes, this busy stretch triggers frequent mishaps involving cars and vans also.
“Since the State Government has set on motion its plan to upgrade it into a four-lane stretch, acquisition of land for the proposed widening has started. Hence, the officials said that there was no scope for laying this road afresh. If so, steps should be taken to fill in hundreds of dangerous potholes and this exercise should be completed before the season moves to top gear,” said P. Senthur Pandian, a Bharatiya Janata Party functionary from Courtallam.
Advocate Commissioner R.M. Arun Swaminathan, who visited Courtallam on Saturday, inspected the facilities available near the Main Falls, Five Falls, Old Falls, bus stand and other places along with Justin Jayapaul, tahsildar, Tenkasi.
“The Court, while hearing the case in 2015 on improving tourist-friendly facilities at Courtallam, had given 30 directions to the Departments of Police, Forest, Courtallam Town Panchayat, Public Works Departments, Highways, Revenue etc. with the objective of ensuring the safety and security of the tourists. The Court also appointed Advocate Commissioner to visit Courtallam every now and then to verify the actual situation. While some of the directions have been translated into action, most of the directions are yet to be executed. Hence I visited Courtallam on the first day of the season itself to ascertain the present status,” Mr. Arun told The Hindu .
He had a meeting here with the officials concerned to discuss the ways of executing all directions of the court at the earliest.
“The officials have promised to execute all directions at the earliest. I’ll visit Courtallam again in mid-June to verify if the recommendations of the court have really been implemented,” Mr. Arun said.
He said deployment of breathalysers at Courtallam would be ensured at any cost till the end of the season as the court was keen on curbing liquor menace.
