Even as the Head Post Office junction is witnessing heavy traffic congestion because of the traffic diversion in force in the city, the junction has become a vantage spot for vendors selling a variety of products. Apart from local vendors selling flowers, a few North Indians, including a few girls, could be seen selling a range of products right from umbrellas, car sun screens, and dolls. The vendors run frantically from one vehicle to another that line up at the automatic traffic signal to sell their products in the short time. While some motorists do purchase their products, many others are worried over the vendors dangerous manoeuvres to reach out to the occupants of vehicles. Many vendors have made the sidewalks of the Pudukottai bridge a shopping area by displaying their wares. Several motorists halt on the bridge to buy the products, oblivious to the danger posed to other road users.
While Monitoring Officers deputed by the government were busy supervising relief and rescue operations in the wake of the onset of northeast monsoon in most other districts, C. Samayamoorthy, Director of Employment and Training, the monitoring officer for Pudukottai, did not have much to oversee by way of relief work as the district did not experience heavy rainfall.
Most water bodies in the district remained dry or had little water. After inspecting some fields, he announced that there was no crop damage in the district.
A note issued after a press briefing said most of the 8,652 water bodies in the district had water storage of just one to 2.5 feet in depth. Since there was not much rain, there was no major damage to infrastructure in the district but for certain stretches of rural and State Highways roads, he said.
S. GANESAN
