COIMBATORE: A section of people living in Jadayampalayam staged a road roko on Monday night on the Mettupalayam-Sathy road to highlight water shortage in the area. Over 2,000 people are living in the 12 wards of the Jadayampalayam panchayat near Mettupalayam. The panchayat is supplied drinking water from the Moolaiyur drinking water scheme and Jadayampalayam drinking water scheme. Water for these projects is drawn from the Bhavani river.
The locals alleged that water has not been supplied for over 15 days. Sources said due to the construction of a check dam in the Bhavani River for the Tirupur second joint drinking water project, water supply to other schemes from the dam has dropped drastically.
On Monday night, over 500 people blocked the Mettupalayam Sirumugai Road carrying empty pots. The protest lasted till Monday midnight and resumed on Tuesday morning. Due to this, the traffic on road was affected and vehicles coming towards Mettupalayam from Sirumugai were diverted via Vellikuppam Palayam and Kumaran Kundru. Similarly, vehicles going to Sirumugai from Mettupalayam were diverted via Odanthurai Vachinam-palayam.
Police personnel along with the Mettupalayam MLA AK Selvaraj, Karamadai Panchayat Union Committee President Manimekalai Mahendran, Jadayampalayam Panchayat President TKV Palaniswami and the TWAD board officials held talks with the protestors. The people demanded the officials to supply 1 MLD of water from the 27 MLD of surplus water in the Tiruppur second drinking water project to Jadayampalayam panchayat. After the officials’ assurance, the people withdrew their protest on Tuesday afternoon.