Political support continues to pour in for the cause of laying service roads along the Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway, with the Communist Party of India joining hands with local residents to stage a demonstration seeking to highlight the demand at Kailash Nagar on Sunday.
A large number of the CPI cadre and local residents, organised under the umbrella of Federation for Retrieval of Tiruchi-Palpannai-Thuvakkudi Service Roads, staged the demonstration demanding immediate and concrete steps to build service roads along the 14.5 km stretch between Ariyamangalam Palpannai and Thuvakudi. The agitators raised slogans demanding the service roads and effective steps to prevent recurring accidents on the stretch.
CPI Member of Parliament P.Lingam participated in the demonstration along his party colleagues T.Indrajit, district secretary, and S.Selvaraj, Tiruverambur Union secretary, to express solidarity with the local residents who have been carrying on a campaign over the past few months.
Mr.Selvaraj, who presided over the agitation, said that though Transport Minister K.N.Nehru and Highways Minister M.P.Saminathan had recently visited the place and told residents that a proposal for laying the service roads has been forwarded to the Centre, there was no indication on the ground that the service road would be laid in a time-bound manner. Though service lanes have been laid beyond Thuvakudi and along the Tiruchi-Chennai Bypass, the busy and industrial stretch between Palpannai and Thuvakudi, has been rendered without service roads, he observed.
Accidents continue to occur frequently resulting in the loss of lives and limbs, he said and added that the agitation was also to demand adequate compensation for the victims of the accidents. Until the service roads were laid, adequate traffic cops should be posted on all important traffic junctions along the stretch, they demanded.
