TIRUVANNAMALAI: In a major drive to identify open borewells, as many as 5,804 abandoned open pits have been capped in the district. Collector KS Kandasamy visited Thennarasampattu on Friday to inspect the work progress to close an abandoned open borewell found near the Panchayat Union Primary School.
“The drive to identify and close abandoned open borewell was initiated following the tragic death of Sujith in Tiruchy. We have found 5,804 abandoned open borewells across the district during the drive carried out for four days,” he said, adding that several of the defunct borewells were converted into rainwater harvesting structures. The district administration has done the job with the cooperation of various departments including municipal administration and rural development, revenue and the police. Public also rendered better cooperation.
The Collector directed the authorities concerned to continue to carry out steps to identify open borewells and action should be taken up on a war footing to close them. Kandasamy issued a warning against digging new borewells, tubewells and ringwells without prior permission from the rural development department in the villages.
Asking the rig unit operators to get registration certificate from the District Collector for their units as per the rules, he said that if they were found violating the guidelines, the registration would have to be cancelled.Earlier, Kandasamy joined the school students and teachers in paying homage to Sujith in the school premises.