Councillors at the Tirunelveli Corporation Council meeting held on Friday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGMENT
Corporation Commissioner Monika Rana has assured that no civil construction will be made within or near the Tamirabharani as part of the urban civic body’s plans to protect the perennial river supplying drinking water everyday to several lakhs of people in the four southern districts.
When chairman of Palayamkottai Zone of Tirunelveli Corporation M. Francis during the council meeting held on Friday wanted to have clarity on the Corporation’s ‘Tamirabharani restoration programme’ to be implemented on an outlay of ₹59 crore, Dr. Monika said sewage was mixing up with the Tamirabharani at 23 spots as the perennial river flows for about 16 km within the urban local body. Hence, the conservation of the Tamirabharani and its restoration was to be implemented with external funding of ₹59 crore by treating the sewage that seriously pollutes the drinking water source.
“We’re about to float tender for this project in which no construction will be made inside or on the bank of the Tamirabharani. After completely removing the ‘seemai karuvaelam’ trees growing along the river, native species trees will be planted. The sewage flowing into the Tamirabharani will be checked completely by diverting it to the treatment yard at Ramaiyanpatti. Moreover, the granite mandapams along the Tamirabharani will be renovated without disturbing its antiquity,” the Commissioner promised.
When a few Councillors raised the issue pertaining to the rise in fever cases within the Corporation limits, Dr. Monika, a medical doctor, said 106 fever cases had been identified till September 22 in the past four months and only three of them tested positive for dengue.
“They too had travel history as they had reached Tirunelveli from Chennai. Hence, we cannot conclude concretely that the they had contracted dengue infection only in Tirunelveli,” Dr. Monika said.
She informed that anti-dengue operations like fogging, door-to-door visits of ‘Dengue Breading Checker’ teams, fever cases identification, destroying of mosquito breeding grounds, sprinkling of larvicides in stagnant water, desitling of drainage and storm water channels etc. had been accelerated in a big way in the Corporation so as to eradicate completely dengue cases, she said.
When Councillor Chinnathaai accused the Corporation officials of refusing to give any reply and solution for her complaints, Mayor G. Ramakrishnan asked the Commissioner to look into the appeal from the member.
As the members raised the drinking water crisis prevailing in the Corporation, Mr. Francis charged that the funds allocated for this purpose during the previous DMK regime was not utilised properly.
Councillor Wilson Mani Durai alleged that “rampant corruption” in the ₹58 crore earmarked for ‘round-the-clock drinking water scheme’ had defeated the purpose of this project.
Councillor Rasool Maideen said there was no proper and sufficient drinking water supply to the overhead water tanks in Melapalayam and hence supply of drinking water to the 3,800 houses in Aameenpuram had been poor for the past several months.
CPI (M) councillor Muthu Subramanian of ward 55 complained that the drinking water crisis in his ward for the past 20 days had not been addressed even after this issue was raised with the Corporation officials repeatedly.
Following barrage of complaints pertaining to erratic drinking water supply, Mr. Ramakrishnan urged the officials to look into this problem immediately and take corrective measures.
Chairperson of Tirunelveli Zone Maheshwari alleged that most of the development works meant for her ward and the zone had not been implemented even after tenders were floated and finalised.
Published – September 25, 2026 06:42 pm IST
