Villagers want sand quarry routes shut

TIRUCHY: Angry villagers of Thiruengoimalai near Musiri in Tiruchy district have demanded that the administration take immediate steps to close down two pathways to a sand quarry as it posed a threat to both the safety of the local people and to the neighbourhood environment.

In a petition to the Tiruchirappalli district collector Palanisamy, the villagers said the two routes used by sand lorries ferrying to the quarry and back posed a nuisance and safety threat to a large number of villagers of a cluster of hamlets including Melasanthapalayam, Keelasanthapalayam, Kunjainackenpalayam and other surrounding villages.

The pathways particularly came as a nightmare to school-going children along that route, besides affecting farming activities, they said. The villagers led by T Muruganandam met the district Collector K S Palanisamy and handed over the memorandum on the hazards posed by the two pathways to the quarry.

The villagers pointed out that sand collected from the Cauvery river at Thiruengoimalai used to be stores the same inside the village, thanks to the road laid between the riverbed and their village.

This affected the flow of water in the three irrigation and drainage canals in the area, thereby affecting the prospects of standing crops too.

The speeding sand lorries created a scare among hundreds of school-going children with accidents having taken place on some occasions. They also wanted the district administration to close down the sand quarry near Thiruengoimalai village.

Collector Palanisamy assured the villagers that he would look in to the matter.