The Otteri tank, considered one of the key sources of water for Vellore city, should be protected from being used as a dump.
n the outskirts of the city
This was one of the key civic issues highlighted by the majority of councillors at the monthly meeting of the Corporation Council held on Tuesday.
Currently, at least 15 borewells have been dug around the tank, on the outskirts of the city, to tap the groundwater to supply water every day. However, ward members said most of the dumping was being done after sunset, and residents had to install CCTV cameras to prevent illegal dumping.
“We have also raised with the Collector [P. Kumaravel Pandian] the need to locate a permanent landfill for the Corporation. The tank will be protected,” Mayor Sujatha Ananthakumar said.
Spread over 100 acres, the tank has a storage capacity of 4.5 lakh cubic feet, mainly fed with rainwater from Naickeneri, Palla Idayapatti and the Klavimedu hills. The tank is a British era facility. Excess water from it flows to the Fort’s moat through Nicholson Channel and then to Surya Kulam. A natural distribution system is in place as water flows to the ground-level reservoir in the Corporation’s filter bed in Vellore.
As for safe disposal of non-biodegradable waste within the corporation limits, the Corporation Commissioner said that bio-mining equipment would be procured to handle at least 25 metric tonnes of waste a day. Clearance from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) had been sought, he said.
Irregular water supply was another civic issue that was raised by ward members. As water was being supplied by TWAD, the Corporation Commissioner said mapping of wards into district metric zones and sub-zones was being done to evenly distribute water. Soon, the water supply will be regularised for all wards.
Street lights, including non-working high-mast lamps in many wards, also came up for discussion. The Mayor said ₹5 crore had been allotted to install 4,000 LED street lights. Each zone would get, on an average, 1,000 street lights soon. Ward member for 18, Ms. Mamthakumar complained that seven TASMAC outlets were being run at Kagithapattarai along the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway and demanded relocation of these outlets from the residential areas. The issue had to be addressed by the Collector, the Mayor said.
The three-hour meeting was chaired by the Mayor. Deputy Mayor M. Sunil Kumar and Corporation Commissioner P. Ashok Kumar were present. The council passed a resolution for 225 works that would be taken up in all four zones, covering 60 wards.
