Angered by the poor quality of road restoration work and inaction on the part of Aruppukottai municipality on their complaints, residents of ward 16 staged a road roko here on Wednesday.
Led by CPI(M) councillor for ward 16, Tirunagaram, they blocked Virudhunagar Road around 8.40 a.m. Barring police officials, none of the municipality authorities came to hold talks with the protesters. After allowing vehicles carrying students to schools, the agitators blocked the road again.
A CPI(M) functionary, M. Thomas Xavier, said the roads that were dug up to lay drinking water pipelines had not been properly restored for the last three months. After an allocation of ₹1.63 crore for relaying the roads in seven streets of ward 16, the contractor was dumping construction waste and debris to fill up the pits.
"We objected to dumping of waste materials as it would not allow the surface to properly settle down before the black top is laid. The construction debris and waste from other places were being dumped here as against fill them up with gravel," Mr. Xavier said.
AFter over two hours of blockade, Municipal Commissioner Ashok Kumar arrived at the spot and tried to pacify the protesters.
Mr. Xavier drew the atttention of the Commissioner towards the absence of a notice board about work details in the ward. "We neither know who the contractor is nor whom to complain in case of poor execution of work. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has made it mandatory to install the notice boards, and the municipal authorities have not complied," he said.
After the Commissioner assured them that he would look into the execution of the road work, the agitators dispersed. Local residents had formed a four-member committee in each street to monitor the quality of work, he added.
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