CHENNAI : The Pallavaram Municipality on Monday conceded that the northern part of the Putheri lake along the Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road is part of the water body. Express reported in July 2017 how the municipality, in its face-saving bid, had claimed that one side of the lake bifurcated by the link road was not part of the water body.The municipality had responded to an RTI application filed by a local activist in June 2017, claiming that both sides (northern and southern) of the lake had been desilted while in reality only the southern side had been desilted.
Municipal Commissioner K Shivakumar at a public grievance meeting organised by the Federation of Civic and Welfare Associations of Pallavapuram Municipality, said that a clerical error had been committed in the RTI reply. “The encroachments on the northern side of the Putheri lake will be marked with the help of the Revenue Department within two weeks and steps will be taken to evict encroachers,” he said.
Encroachers unamused
While the municipality said it was committed to reclaiming the northern side of the lake, an NGO that has been given permission to desilt the site is facing stiff opposition from the encroachers. One of the encroachers had allegedly even threatened the NGO to stop the work. “One of the encroachers said he would use bureaucracy to chase us out,” said Karthi Raja, a volunteer of Pasumai Peruga Sutham Sei, which is engaged in desilting works. It is learnt that false allegations such as swindling of lake sand were levelled against the NGO by political functionaries to stop desilting works.
The municipality’s double take on the water body has drawn criticism from residents who allege that the civic body is responding only after all its underhand attempts to change the topography of the Putheri lake failed. “An NGO is being roped in to desilt the northern side for free because the municipality has wilfully abstained from desilting it with the funds allocated in May 2017,” said David Manohar, a local activist, hinting that political pressure had kept the municipality at bay so far. Pallavaram tahsildar Wilfred Kitchingh told Express that the permissions given to encroachers would be reviewed and boundaries of the lake marked.