Times of India: Madurai: Friday, July 13, 2018.
The Tamil
Nadu government has sanctioned Rs 1,638.52 lakh to revive the Vaigai river
which will be spent over a period of three years, on July 6. But, funds
released earlier for Vagai restoration were diverted for other works, as per
the reply to RTI filed by NGO Vaigai Nathi Makkal Iyakkam.
Convener of
the NGO, M Rajan, said that the Madurai Corporation had failed to take
responsibility to check pollution in the river, as per the RTI queries filed by
him.
He said that
the Vaigai river, which flows for 258km through five districts, is highly
polluted only in the 12 km stretch passing through the city.
To a query
regarding mixing of sewage in the river, the city health officer said that the
flow of sewage into the river has been checked, but it is not so, said Rajan.
“When two new
bridges were constructed across the Vaigai near Arapalayam and Sellur,
contractors laid internal pipelines and carried the sewage away from the
construction site. But it continues to flow in the river till date,” said
Rajan.
“They have
only reduced the number of sewage discharge points in the city from 56 to 40,”
he said.
The
engineering wing of the Madurai Corporation, in a reply to an RTI has, said
that Rs 11.10 lakh was spent in 2017-18 to prevent flow of sewage into the
river and another Rs 22 lakh in 2018-2019 for the same.
In 2014, the
central government had sanctioned Rs 120 crore for reviving Vaigai and Rs 63.34
crore was sanctioned to the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board,
which was the nodal agency, through the National River Conservation
Directorate. But these funds too were not utilised for Vaigai.
RTI query on
how the funds were spent by the board has received a vague reply as it has
stated that it was not able to provide the details of the work carried out with
the funds.