Meet to discuss Valasarawakkam underground sewer project

By S.Shanker

CHENNAI, MAY 26. The Valasarawakkam Town Panchayat has called a meeting of the resident welfare associations on Sunday to discuss the implementation of the underground sewer network. This follows a representation from a resident of Ramakrishna Nagar that the pumping station should not be constructed in the locality.

As many as 14 councillors of the panchayat hurriedly met on May 25 to work out a strategy following the Metrowater, the implementing agency's concern, on the representation.

While the Rs. 20 crore-project took almost two years to materialise, the `bhoomi pooja', which was fixed at Alwarthirunagar on May 18 was postponed to May 22, following objections raised from the town secretary of the ruling party.

The contractors, IVRC, who have been sanctioned the Alandur sewer project, informed the town panchayat that they would prefer to delay carrying out the work. However, the panchayat chairman, Mr.S.Mahadevan, and some councillors ensured that `pooja' was performed on May 22 and the preliminary work started the same day.

Mr.Mahadevan said 310 of the 522 assessees at Ramakrishna Nagar had remitted the first instalment of Rs.6,000.

The previous Government had delayed permission for the local body to go ahead with the project as it felt a minimum of Rs.4.5 crores had to collected from the 8,000 odd assessees as deposit. However, with the deposit mobiliation crossing Rs.3 crores, permission was granted.

The deposit for the `user pay mode' scheme is Rs. 12,000 for residential assessments and Rs.24,000 for commercial establishments.

The town panchayat which obtained the `support' of 80 odd resident associations for the proposal, found that when it came to remittance of the deposit, the response was minimal. It then conducted a series of meetings with the associations. At one stage, some councillors pointed out that it had become a practice of only those who had remitted the deposit to attend the meeting to `learn' about the progress of the project.

The Directorate of Town Panchayat also took up a deposit mobilisation campaign as it was the first Town Panchayat identified for the scheme. Senior Metrowater officials also participated in some of the interactive sessions to explain the technicalities of the project and motivate the residents to remit the deposit.

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