Forums cry foul over road laying works
PUDUCHERRY: Unscientific laying of roads and drains by municipalities has become a bone of contention between public forums and the government here. While government maintains laying of roads as a public necessity, public forums like Pondy CAN (Pondy Citizens’ Action Network) and People’s Pulse have been objecting to it citing that the roads laid at higher levels than the adjoining houses and temples have led to water-logging in low lying areas. The road laying work at Rue Dupuy and on the Muthumariamman Koil Street is at the heart of the controversy.
Puducherry Municipality has went ahead with the work on these roads despite protests from public forums and the fact that the government has already instructed the Chief Town Planner (CTP) to coordinate with various departments to come up with recommendations to ensure road development in a scientific manner. “They are chocking the drains through this unscientific approach,” says Probir Banerjee of Pondy CAN. Areas like Rainbow Nagar are witnessing problems due to this.
As per the government instruction, the CTP should study all on-going works in detail to arrive at the levels and other technicalities, including the type of drains and roads. The works in progress should be taken up again only after this assessment, says Banerjee. Accordingly a high-level delegation comprising the CTP, Director of Local Area Development, Commissioner of Puducherry Municipality and a team of engineers visited the site of work on the Dupuy Street. After inspection, the CTP instructed the work be suspended till a complete technical study was done.
According to Devanathan of People’s Pulse, a similar problem is in the making near the 900-year-old Veda Purieshwara Temple, located on the Mahatma Gandhi Road and adjacent to the Muthumariamman Koil Street. Here a concrete road is being laid at a height of over a foot above the floor level of the temple. This would compound the problem of water-logging, which has always caused hardships to the devotees and tourists.
However, K Lakshminarayan MLA says that the road was being laid following public representation for addressing the issue of water-logging. Since the Muthumariamman Koil Street was at a lower level, Mahatma Gandhi Road witnessed water-logging during rainy season. The municipal officials in charge of laying the road have said that the platform adjoining the temple wall would also be raised so that water did not enter the temple premises. The houses are at a higher level than the road laid, he adds.
Devanathan said the concrete road was being paved on the mada veethi (the route on which temple procession goes), primarily for temple activities. If that is so, other technical parameters like drainage facilities near the temple should have been taken into consideration, he adds. The forums want all works stopped till a technical assessment is done.