THENI: With protesters showing no let-up in agitation against a giant well, reportedly on a land belonging to the wife of former chief minister O Panneerselvam at Lakshmipuram, the former owner of the land has questioned the motive behind the protests, alleging that the villagers were making a mountain out of a molehill.
The residents, on Monday, tried to capture the well, claiming that it was responsible for the depleting water level in other wells in the area. However, Subburaj, a resident of Lakshmipuram, who was the previous owner of the land, said that the whole issue was unnecessarily blown up.
According to sources, Subburaj, a close friend of Panneerselvam, bought 18.5 cents of land on the foothills of Sorkamalai in 2006. The land was later sold to Vijayalakshmi, wife of the former CM.
A staffer at the panchayat office said, “Before the common well was dug in 2014, four wells were used to supply water to the residents. Of them, two ran dry, while one supplies one lakh litres of water regularly to the panchayat and another gives 15,000 litres every alternate day. In addition, Panneerselvam dug a borewell near his giant well to supply 15,000 litres of water to the panchayat. Another borewell located near the village supplies the same quantity of water to the residents.”
Confirming this, Subburaj told Express, “A borewell was dug near the giant well to supply one lakh litres of water to the residents of Lakshmipuram, while I dug another one borewell in Sriram Nagar, from which another one lakh litres of water could be supplied. Water was given to the residents from these two borewells for two years. However, no one approached Panneerselvam or me this year seeking release of water.”