DINDIGUL
Complaining that the PWD engineers, who were entrusted with the task of executing the kudimaramathu work, had allegedly indulged in negligence and malpractice, the support wall, constructed along the tank here, collapsed, said farmers in Reddiyarchatram Union on Thursday.
Submitting a petition to the Collector M Vijayalakshmi, the farmers said that in Reddiyarchatram union, there is a huge temple tank measuring 100 acres belonging to the Kadir Narasinga Perumal Temple. About 300 acres of cultivable land in the block gets benefitted through the water conservation in the tank. After several pleas, the government included the tank in kudimaramathu scheme a year ago. An estimated ₹ 21 lakh was spent by the PWD engineers.
However, the quality of the construction had come in for severe criticism that the support wall on the southern side of the tank collapsed after the area witnessed showers in the last two or three days. Similarly, the absence of sluice had resulted in damage to the tank shutter, which was in a bad shape.
Speaking to reporters, village vice-chairman and farmer M.V. Rengasami said that the poor quality exposed the work with just a shower. The non-plastering of the sluice portion with concrete had given way and collapsed. Similarly, another farmer P Balasubramani said that when government spent so much of public money, there has to be accountability. He demanded a probe and urged to punish the erring engineers and blacklist the contractor.
