Residents up in arms as sewage mixes with stagnant rainwater
The Hindu
They threaten to stage a black flag protest during Stalin’s visit to Thoothukudi today
With sewage mixing with stagnant rainwater around their houses for more than a week, residents blocked a road and threatened to stage a black flag protest as Chief Minister M. K. Stalin is scheduled to visit the district on Thursday.
As knee-deep water is stagnating on the premises of most of the schools in the district, Thoothukudi Collector K. Senthil Raj declared holiday for all the schools while colleges functioned as usual on Wednesday. Si.Va. Government Higher Secondary School premises that houses the office of the Chief Educational Officer, was totally inundated.
The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.