The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Blasting for drainage opposed

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Friday, Jul 15, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Others

Blasting for drainage opposed

Staff Reporter

AFTER EFFECT: Windowpane of a car, parked at a house in Sharief Colony in Tirupur, broke to pieces in the impact of the blast on Wednesday. — Photo: M. Balaji

TIRUPUR: The use of explosives to dig a huge pit to lay pipeline for underground drainage at Shariff Colony here drew strong protest from the residents as stones from the site ripped apart the windowpanes of cars and made cracks on the walls of houses.

P. Balasubramaniam, whose car got damaged and his neighbour, Ramesh, son of former MLA Mohan P. Kandasamy, lodged a complaint against the contractor at the Tirupur South police station on Thursday.

Mr. Balasubramaniam said nearly 70 blasts took place so far and the use of powerful explosives caused extensive damage to his house. "Though we had earlier warned them, they (the contractor) did not take it seriously."

Explosives used

Mr. Ramesh said the 120-ft-long compound wall of his house developed cracks following which the wall was in a state of collapse. Denying use of "powerful" explosives, the contractor, however, agreed to compensate the damages.

With rocks at one metre depth, the contractor claimed that they had no other option but to use explosives. They did "controlled" blasting and had to do it many times to get the desired level of depth to facilitate free flow of sewerage by gravity, the contractor pointed out.

Meanwhile, the blasting had now been stopped.

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