The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Sewage treatment plant of Bhavani Municipality abandoned

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 31, 2007
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Sewage treatment plant of Bhavani Municipality abandoned

Karthik Madhavan

Constructed at a cost of Rs. 50.14 lakh as part of a project to build a sewerage

UNUSED: Sewage treatment plant of Bhavani Municipality, when it was under construction at Ooratchikottai, about 5 km from Bhavani. — Photo: M. Govarthan (File photo)

BHAVANI: Taxpayers and upright, patriotic citizens take heart. Your hard-earned money of over Rs. 50 lakh has gone down the drain, benefiting none.

Bhavani Municipality used the money - Rs. 50.14 lakh to be precise - the Government of India sanctioned under the National River Action Plan, and built a sewage treatment plant (STP), which now stands shelved.

Project

The STP is only a part, though, of the project to build a sewerage system for the carpet town, which stands on the banks of rivers Cauvery and Bhavani. The cost of the project: Rs. 2.54 crore.

To build the STP, the Municipality identified an 8.2-acre site at Ooratchikottai village in Kuruppanaiackenpalayam Panchayat, near here.

No sooner had the village's farmers and 500-odd residents learnt about an STP in their midst than they protested.

Alleging that the STP, with capacity to treat four million litres a day, would pollute their agricultural lands and ground water, they took to all forms of protests like squatting on the Bhavani-Mettur road, petitioning Government officials and approaching the judiciary.

However, with the support of men in khaki, the Municipality went ahead with the project, which the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) implemented by building three tanks with concrete floorings.

Notwithstanding the progress, the villagers continued protests and took up the issue with Agricultural Minister Veerapandi S. Arumugam and Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin.

The latter in a review meeting a few months ago in Erode, favoured the villagers.

After the Ministers' intervention, the Bhavani Municipality has abandoned the STP construction, of which 90 per cent has been complete. "We decided not to go ahead with the STP after the review meeting," say Municipality sources.

Investment

Given the developments, the project, after investment of almost the entire amount, now stands abandoned in a near-complete state.

Municipality sources add the civic body is on the look out for an alternative site to build another STP, and that it has identified a 2.5-acre site near Bhavani New Bus Stand.

TWAD sources only confirmed the news.

About the abandoned STP and the money invested therein, there is no answer, though - either from the civic body or TWAD.

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