TIRUCHY: Corporation workers on Monday started placing boards in poorly maintained vacant plots announcing the civic body has earmarked those lands for public use. The civic body through this move is trying to make landowners fall in line with its direction to clear garbage and debris that act as breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
The corporation has distributed 100 boards to all four zones. These boards would be placed on neglected vacant lands under corporation jurisdiction.”We have distributed 25 boards to each zone. Landowners have to approach the civic body for them to be removed. Even if they remove it themselves, we have information of where we had placed such boards. If any zone needs more boards, we would provide them,” an official said.
Sources said the civic body would erase the information from their records only if landowners clear the trash from their property. “They have to clear the waste and even weeds from their land. Our officials would then conduct and inspection to ensure there is no dengue breeding source in the area,” officials said.
A source said, “We are throwing larvicidal oil balls in some waterlogged vacant plots. But we are unable to access some places as seemai karuvela trees have covered the plots. Even if we throw the larvicidal balls, they would get stuck between the weeds, so we started this initiative.”
Sources said the corporation through this move is also trying to stop the dumping of waste in vacant plots. “This is a concern as we cannot enter private plots and remove all the garbage. It is the landowners’ responsibility to ensure their plots are not mosquito breeding grounds,” an official said. Officials added the civic body has started this move as it is a time-consuming process to find details of the landowners and inform them individually.