[Cuccuccaltefe]

Several Avadi residents came out on to the road to protest against an ex-councillor who they alleged has been extracting groundwater and selling it while they do not get water in their house taps. The protesters said Mr S. Subramanian, former DMK councillor of the 36th ward in Avadi, has been operating an unlicensed water firm at Netaji Nagar by sinking huge pipes to extract groundwater. They said he has been running his firm for nearly a decade using his influence. Owing to this, many wells had gone dry.

Resident P. Chandran said Mr Subramanian has 17 borewell connections in their locality, which would run up to 1,000 feet.

“There are 25,000 households in our area. Many of us have bore pipes running to just 120 feet. But Subramanian has sunk pipes which extract water from a depth of 1,000 feet. Due to this, we do not get water in our households.

We are forced to buy water from private operators for household purposes,“ said Mr Chandran.

Another resident, Mr A.Stalin, said Mr Subramanian had threatened the residents when they staged a protest against him.

“He warned us. He said we would face problems later for protesting against him. We are tired of giving petitions to officials. Water availability has become a big challenge in our area,“ he said.

The Avadi residents and Mr Subramanian have approached Pattabiram police with complaints against each other. The police said an inquiry is on.

When contacted, Mr Subramanian claimed that he has all the necessary documents to operate the water firm and he had no problems in the last 10 years selling water.

Source: Deccan Chronicle