Village residents near Ambur ‘seize’ stone quarry lorries, demand re-laying of road damaged by lorries
The Hindu
Village residents said the lorries from four quarries had damaged Minnur Main Road, making it difficult for farmers to transport their produce; quarry owners had given a written undertaking promising to re-lay the road but had not done so, they said
Residents of Vinnamangalam near Ambur in Tirupattur district seized three lorries carrying blue metal from quarries in the village on Tuesday, demanding immediate relaying of the damaged Minnur Main Road.
The residents said the continuous traffic of lorries from four quarries had damaged the one-km long road, causing commuters hardships, and sometimes injuries. Farmers find it difficult to transport their produce from paddy fields to Ambur, the nearest town that has a common wholesale market.
“Quarry owners had given a written undertaking to taluk officials to re-lay the stretch. But the promise has remained unfulfilled after months,” said S. Pandurangan, president, Vinnamangalam village panchayat.
On Tuesday, residents stopped the lorries around 9 a.m. Traffic was affected on the road, which connects nearly 20 surrounding villages to the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway through Ambur.
The police, led by K. Saravanan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ambur, and tashildar S. Padmanabhan persuaded the village residents to release the lorries, assuring them of action against the quarries.
At present, more than 250 families at Vinnamangalam depend mainly on paddy, groundnut, sugarcane and coconut cultivation. Cattle and poultry farming supplement their income. Most of the quarries are located around the farmland, affecting cultivation and groundwater. Frequent blasting in the quarries causes cracks in many tile-roofed houses. After protests by residents, lorries from the quarries were banned from the stretch between 7.30 a.m. and 9 a.m. every day for safe travel of students and office- goers.
No room for complacency till counting is completed, Chandrababu Naidu tells TDP-BJP-JSP contestants. The TDP-BJP-JSP alliance will register a comfortable victory in the general elections over the YSRCP, he says. Alleging that the YSRCP has conspired to create disturbances on the counting day, the TDP national president advises the chief counting agents and their teams to see to it that the officials adhere to norms related to counting.