TENKASI: The town panchayat administration has spent over Rs 1 crore to construct two overhead tanks and a community hall but has failed to bring them to public use, alleged residents of Pudur (S) town panchayat in Shengottai block.
S Raja, a resident of the town, said many areas of the town panchayat would get drinking water if the unused overhead tanks become functional. "All three public utilities were constructed during the previous AIADMK tenure. The town panchayat administration spent Rs 48 lakh to construct an overhead tank in Poolankudiyiruppu with a capacity of 2 lakh litre. A huge amount was also spent on the construction of another overhead tank in the Swarnaboomi (Mann Pothai) area. Both tanks were left unused. The community hall, which was constructed in 2015 at an outlay of Rs 48 lakh in Swarnaboomi, has not witnessed a single marriage so far. By not bringing them to function, the town panchayat administration has wasted the huge amount of taxpayers' money," he alleged.
Town panchayat chairperson Ravishankar told TNIE that these public utilities were unnecessarily constructed by AIADMK administration allegedly to get 'kickbacks' from the contractors. "A marriage hall and an overhead tank were intentionally constructed in the remote Swarnaboomi area to artificially hike the price of plots owned by some individuals. The drinking water well, meant for the overhead tank of Poolankudiyiruppu area, was constructed five km away from the tank. The water pipeline from the well has to cross a railway line. Even though we got permission for its crossing from the railways, we could not pump up the water to the tank due to the distance between the well and the tank. We are planning to give the community hall to women self help groups on rent for industrial purposes," he said.
When TNIE attempted to contact Latha Seenidurai, the former AIADMK chairperson of the town panchayat, her husband Seenidurai picked up the phone and said the tenure of his wife ended before the panchayat administration could bring the public utilities to use. "We even paid money to the railways for pipeline works in Poolankudiyiruppu. The Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board refused to supply water to the tank located in Swarnaboomi. The community hall was used once for accommodating Covid-19 patients in 2020," he said.