KANNUR: Residents of Padannappalam here are on a warpath against the Kannur Municipality accusing the latter of not keeping its assurance on a comprehensive drainage plan for the town.

The plan is expected to end the five-decade-old environmental and health problems being faced by the people following the conversion of the Padannathode canal for draining wastewater from the municipal area into the sea.

Blockade

The action committee of local residents on Tuesday said that Padannappalam road would be blocked on June 27 as a mark of protest against the municipality's failure to keep its assurance on the issue.

Committee leaders A.M. Prakashan and Bhagysheelan Chalad said at a press conference here that the chairperson in a meeting held on May 12 had promised in writing that the municipality would ask the Kerala Water Authority's waste water treatment wing to conduct a study on the Padannathode issue and prepare a blueprint of a comprehensive sewage water treatment programme for the town within a month.

The committee had suspended its agitation programmes on the basis of this assurance, they said.

The action committee leaders said that the agitation was to highlight the right of the residents to clean air, water and environment.

The situation in the Padannappalam area had worsened with the onset of monsoon as wastewater entered houses during heavy rainfall, they said.

False promises

Chief Ministers from Pattom Thanu Pillai to A.K. Antony and successive Water Resources Ministers had promised lasting solution to the health and environment problems faced by the residents, they added.

Though a scheme had been prepared for ending the problem in 1974, it had not been implemented, the action committee said.

The municipality had approached a British agency in 1997 for a comprehensive sewage plan. The Rs.10-crore plan had been announced in 2000, they said adding that the municipality was now exploring Japanese aid for the project.

Receiving end

The people of the area were at the receiving end of this long history of the municipality's inefficiency and breaking of assurances, the committee alleged.

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