Tamil Nadu - Salem   

Encroachments on water bodies yet to be removed

Staff Reporter

`Eviction drive to start within four days'

SALEM: There was a time when the officials from the Revenue Department and Salem Corporation used to carry out survey and evict encroachers from the water bodies and channels in the outskirts of the city. But that effort seems to have faded away, when it comes to the removal of encroachments at the centre of the city.

The encroachments on many of the channels within the city are yet to be removed. For instance, the major channels that passes through the Fairlands and New Bus Stand areas are heavily encroached and remain untouched by the officials so far. The encroachments on the Pallapatti Lake, which has a water-spread area of 44 acres and the channels linked to it, have not yet removed. Interestingly, the Pallapatti Lake has been chosen for setting up a sewage treatment plant by the civic administration.

At loggerheads

Further, the Revenue and Corporation officials are at loggerheads over evicting encroachers on the channels in the city. Revenue officials said that they had completed surveying the encroachments in Fairlands and New Bus Stand Area with the help of Corporation surveyors. An inspection would be carried out before removing the encroachments. But a senior Corporation official said that their surveyors had not received any instruction so far to survey the encroachments in the area.

However, the Revenue Divisional Officer, M. Selvaraj, said, "We will start the eviction process in another four days time."

Surplus water

Meanwhile, a major portion of the encroachments in the Raja Vaikkal in Pachapatti area is also yet to be removed.

"After removing a few encroachments, the officials left it midway," the residents complained.

The channel that passes through the heart of the city carries surplus water from the Kumaragiri Lake in Ammapet.

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