The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Panchayat demolishes Vandalur lake outlet, blame it on residents

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 25, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Panchayat demolishes Vandalur lake outlet, blame it on residents

K. Manikandan

Earthmover tears down lake bund and stone structure forming part of outlet Kancheepuram district administration said it was unaware of the demolition and that it had not received any complaint of water level raising alarmingly in the Vandalur lake. If it had received information, it would not have hesitated to act on time.

TAMBARAM: An outlet point of the Vandalur `periya eri' was demolished by authorities of the Vandalur Village Panchayat, resulting in flooding of fields and residential localities around.

Panchayat authorities however denied the demolition and blamed it on residents of houses on the lake fringes, fearing they would be marooned if the water level continued to rise.

Early in the morning, an earthmover was brought down the outlet point of the lake, resulting in water gushing out and entering residential areas on the Mannivakkam side. Residents of Mannivakkam and Vandalur Lakshmi Nagar said Vandalur panchayat authorities had done it to prevent water from marooning houses on the Western fringes of the lake.

They said the earthmover simply tore down the lake bund and the stone structure that formed part of the outlet point.

S. Aramudhan, president of the Vandalur Panchayat, denied the demolition was carried out by the panchayat and said the residents of Otteri Extension did it. In fact, reporters and photographers from English and Tamil dailies were at the receiving end from a group of persons when they spoke to residents and took pictures of the damaged portion of the outlet point and the lake bund.

Asked if permission from the Kancheepuram district administration was sought before the demolition, Mr. Aramudhan reiterated that it was done by the residents themselves and not by the village panchayat.

He added: "Already there is chest-deep water in areas adjacent to the lake. What is more important, saving lives or seeking permission from officials and waiting for them to come?" he asked.

The panchayat president and his supporters were particularly harsh on Pugazhenthi, the Vandalur area reporter of Daily Thanthi. Apart from showering abuses on him, they threatened him with dire consequences.

Mr. Aramudhan said he would never resort to anything that would cause problems to the residents, adding he had made arrangements for food and shelter to flood affected residents in the past few days.

Senior officials of the Kancheepuram district administration said they were unaware of the demolition and had not received any complaint of the water level rising alarmingly in the Vandalur lake. An officer in the rank of Executive Engineer would probe the issue, officials said, adding that had they received information, they would have acted on time.

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